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...THE... 
PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 



The Philosophy oi Fire underlies all True Initiation 
as well as the Secret Doctrine and ihe Ancient 
Mijsteries: it is likewise the foiuidatiou upon which 
are built all Mxjstic and Occidt Fraternities, the 
Ideal Republic, and the Brotherhood of Man. 




BY R. SWINBURNE CLYMER, M. D. 

Author of "The Rosicrucians; Their Teachings 
"Alchemists", "Divine Alchemvj", etc., etc. 



PuMisked bvj 

The Philosophical Publishing Cc. 
"•Beverltj Kail," 

Quakertown, Pe. 






TO ALL SEEKERS 

This third edition of the "Philosophy of 
Fire" is issued as a Landmark of the Seven- 
ty-second Convocation of the Rose Cross 
Order in America. The Triple Order was 
founded by Paschal Beverly Randolph, M. 
D., and his co-workers, after his return 
from the Orient. 

Copyrighted 1920. All rights reserved. 



By Transfer 
Dept. of State 

MOV 1 2 <| 



& cT d 

THE ROSE CROSS ORDER 

ACKNOWLEDGES ALLEGIANCE TO 

The Grand Council 

OF 

Tlie Supreme Grand Temple oi the Rosu 

Cross in America as the Sovereign 

Source oi Rosicrucian Art 

AND 

THE SOVEREIGN BODY OF THE 
ROSICRUCIAN BROTHERHOOD 

co co 

THE HOUSE OF S. S. 

Is at Present Situated in the Cituj of 

Salem, Massachusetts. 

cT cT cT 



Preface to Third Edition 

The first edition of the "Philosophy of Fire" was issued 
in 1905 and sold within a few months of its publication. The 
second edition, rewritten and very much enlarged, appeared in 
1907; was well received and highly endorsed by students of 
the Mysteries and the Higher Occult. 

Since the issue of this last edition, times have greatly 
changed, opinions have undergone a mental revolution, and 
problems and subjects formerly tabooed and shunned by the 
educated classes, are now being freely discussed. 

All this we had in mind while rewriting the "Philosophy 
of Fire" for its third edition, permitting us to give a clearer 
exposition of the Fire Philosophy underlying all religions, and 
likewise to extensively hint at the material basis underlying the 
teaching and training in the Secret Schools of the Ancients. 

Many well informed readers have labored under the im- 
pression that these Schools had in mind merely the greater 
physical and higher mental development of its neophytes, for- 
getting for the moment, if they actually ever knew, that in 
Ancient times, when the greater Initiates ruled, and ruled 
wisely, even those royally born could not become Kings unless 
they had been fully trained and thoroughly educated in these 
Schools. These rulers were termed the Initiate-Kings and 
while in power the people prospered and were protected in their 
liberties. It was only after the greater Church became de- 
graded and other than Initiate-Kings ruled, that the masses 
were exploited by the classes. 

Nevertheless, throughout the ages intervening between the 



8 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

Glorious Egypt of 5,000 years ago, and the present, many of 
the world's greatest Leaders, Generals, Statesmen, and even 
Kings and Presidents have been taught Statesmanship in these 
Schools which have continued a silent and secret existence up 
to the present moment. 

Having made this claim without any reservation what- 
ever, we propose to give a short outline of the advantages Spir- 
itual instructions and training has for the true seeker, and to 
follow this with a statement expressing the opinions of the 
Schools on the Ideal Republic and how it may be established. 

There are two methods of gaining knowledge. The one is 
that of the material school, the method and study of the exper- 
iences of others, and memorizing both the method and the con- 
clusions reached. This is superficial to a degree, because it de- 
pends entirely upon memory and belief, which can be turned 
into actual knowledge through experience, but the majority do 
not go that far, being willing to take for granted as truth that 
which others have concluded to be truth. The other method is 
that of developing the inner, or spiritual faculties, thereby 
awakening the Intuitive powers, through which both the means 
and the conclusions may be reached, often instantaneously, 
either through feeling, or sensing, or by actual Visualization 
and living, for the moment, the thing which is to be known. 

Through this process, at first difficult and painful, with 
possible after-affects, one may place oneself in the position of 
another undergoing certain trials, and suffer all the tortures 
such are enduring. An easily comprehensible example is that 
of watching one with physical pain, with such intensity as to 
forget the self, and during such time the watcher experiences all 
the pain, and reflects on his own features the agony depicted on 
the face of the actual sufferer. 

The adherent of the material school relies entirely on the 
physical senses and on mental retention of the thing heard, 
while the spiritualist (word used in its real sense) retires to the 
source of all things and there obtains the information desired 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 



through what might be termed "absorption," or the coming into 
communion with "All that Is." 

By this last statement we do not wish to indicate the stu- 
dent in the Secret School should not take up the studies as out- 
lined by the material schools of the day. On the contrary, we 
emphatically state that for the welfare of humanity in general 
the youth should acquire a thorough education by attending 
public school, college and university; but with this regular 
or routine education, he should not forget that other side, the 
real side of his being, nor neglect its development. In other 
words, to be able, while following a systematic course of edu- 
cation, to follow a system of Spiritual training and development, 
thus rounding out his "four-square" being. 

Heretofore it has been the belief of all but a few, possibly 
due to the impression left on the readers of the books dealing 
with the subject, that the Secret Schools taught man to find 
his own soul, to purify the heart so as to throb with love for all 
humanity, and, through the awakening of Intuition, to hold the 
Keys to Nature's Laws thereby enabling him to accomplish his 
desires. 

All this is true, insofar as the Spiritual Nature of man 
is concerned, but the Secret Schools have also always had in 
mind the betterment of physical Humanity, and have been the 
relentless foes of Autocrats, Oligarchies, Potentates and of Op- 
pression in every form, teaching an Ideal Code of Ethics for 
the establishment of an Ideal Democracy, not through Revolu- 
tion, but by Evolution, and that the true, lasting Republic be 
the outgrowth of granting Equal Rights to all men, special 
privileges to none. 

As previously stated, we believe the time is propitious for 
the Secret Schools to give a clear outline of what they have 
taught, and still teach, on the Rights of Man. 

All men are born free, but not equal. It would be both 
foolish and illogical to claim all men are equal when born. 
This inequality is both physical and mental. The child born 



10 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

of healthy parents who themselves are obedient to the rules of 
hygiene and physical development; who live in harmony with 
creative laws, is certainly blessed with a more perfect and 
stronger physique than the child born to parents in the slums 
who know-nothing whatever of hygiene, physical development or 
creative laws. It must, and is, freely admitted there are excep- 
tions to this rule, but we state the general law. 

Likewise the child born to parents who are mentally de- 
veloped, of sound education and of moderately brilliant attain- 
ment, is, in most cases, better equipped mentally, and certainly 
with greater incentive to become, than the child of parents who 
are ignorant and of low mental development. 

However, though men are not born equal, all men should 
have equal opportunity in all respects. That this may become 
a possibility, the Secret Schools believe in the establishment of 
schools of education which will permit every young man and 
woman, no matter how poor materially, the same opportunity 
for education, and professional or scientific training as the chil- 
dren of the rich. 

Such institutions would undoubtedly require the aid of the 
state, but as it is a notoriously well known fact, that the sons 
and daughters of the middle class are better equipped both men- 
tally and physically to become successes in life if given a fair 
chance, than many of the sons and daughters of the ultra- 
rich, it behooves the State to quickly arrange for such educa- 
tional institutions. 

All men, whether great or small, rich or poor, should be 
granted Equal Right for the protection of the person, with non- 
interference one with the other, unless one become a menace to 
the other. All men, whether rich or poor, weak or strong, the 
right of Fair Trial, and be guaranteed Justice. The poor man 
to be protected by the State of which he is a citizen and not 
left to the mercy of those rich in worldly goods. 

All men should be guaranteed equal rights of Development, 
Advancement and Religious Freedom, a toleration of his be- 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 11 

liefs, no matter what they may be, so long as he does not inter- 
fere with the beliefs, or non-beliefs, of his fellow man. 

An ideal State cannot exist if there is one law for the 
rich, another for the poor; one for the strong and another for 
the weak. The weak must be protected by the State until they 
gain strength, while the strong and the rich shall not be consid- 
ered guilty merely because of their strength or their possessions. 

The Ideal State can only exist when the honest possessions 
of the wealthy are protected against aggression, and, on the 
contrary, the rights of the worker protected by just laws against 
exploitation by the strong or wealthy. 

Unquestionably in the past there were numberless Kings, 
Emperors, Potentates, Presidents and employers of the laboring 
classes who were tyrannical, taking every advantage of the 
masses, giving them no more in return than absolutely neces- 
sary. This is true today, although in a lesser degree. 

It is equally true that throughout the ages there were many 
Kings, Emperors, Potentates, Presidents, Kings of finances, 
and employers of labor who were just in every respect; who 
had the welfare of the people at heart. More such men exist 
today than ever before. 

All fair minded men admit that the majority of men in the 
past who possessed wealth or ruling power, were in a degree 
tyrannical, using such wealth or authority to either exact heavy 
toll from those less fortunate, or to demand obedience to estab- 
lished, though often unrighteous and unjust, laws. This is 
equally true today because many men vested with a little brief 
authority dearly love to display it and do not have the strength 
of character to be just and impartial to rich and poor, honored 
and disgraced, alike. 

However, the honored, the strong, and the wealthy have not 
been the only ones to show gross injustice to their fellow men; 
the poor, the workers, the masses, have been equally guilty, nay, 
doubly unjust toward the rich and the strong and to their com- 



12 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

panions in misery and servitude. This is actually truer today 
than ever before in the history of the world. 

An assertion of this nature should not be voiced unless 
there is ample proof for it, moreover, proof should be furnished 
with the statement. 

Let us consider the laborers, the class belonging to Unions, 
in their relation one to the other. As an example, we select the 
contracting carpenter who has in his employ twenty-five men. 
At best not more than five of these are master-joiners. There 
is a call for five men to do some building, the contractor selects 
and grades them so that not more than one of the five is a mas- 
ter mechanic. 

The one requiring the services of these carpenters must 
accept the men selected (except in rare cases), he must pay the 
same rate for the services of the unskilled he pays for that of 
the expert, and the man who does less than half as much (and 
there are always such in every company) work as the expert 
and unable to do perfect work, receives the same wages as the 
expert. 

If the laborer cannot be just to his fellow worker and is 
likewise unjust to the employer, forcing him to pay the same 
wages for unskilled services he pays for master workmanship, 
how can he expect justice from the ruling class, the strong, the 
wealthy? 

The plea may reasonably be advanced that, the workers 
were compelled to form Unions for their self-protection and 
against exploitation by the classes. Even if we were perfectly 
willing to admit this, it does not excuse the destructive practice 
of the wage scale which allows the expert, a member of a Union, 
no more than the novice and slacker (many workers are such 
even after many years of experience), because the latter also 
belongs to the Union. 

There is great injustice practiced by those in authority, 
those who are strong and wealthy, but they are in the minority; 
there is infinite greater wrong done by the masses, the workers, 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 13 

against the classes, and especially against each other, because 
they are in the majority. 

The Secret Schools believe in absolute justice, and cannot 
recognize an injustice, just, merely because it is committed by 
one in power, or by those possessing power, or wealth, nor on 
the excuse the deed is done by one of the masses, or by one seek- 
ing freedom from unfair conditions. Justice recognizes neither 
person or condition, she stands squarely for the right. 

The Ideal State will jealously guard the rights and the 
welfare of the unborn. No state can long exist and look with 
favor on the illegitimately born, but the State can establish just 
laws preventing the birth of such, by recognizing the child born 
out of wedlock as possessing both father and mother, and by 
visiting severe punishment upon the father in the form of 
legally recognizing him as the father and forcing him to perform 
all the duties a natural, loving father would perform. Count- 
less millions of children were born before a marriage ceremony 
existed, can we believe all such were damned by God, whom 
we believe to be a Loving Father ? If they were not damned 
then certainly He does not visit punishment upon the child born 
out of wedlock today, for it was not in position to prevent the 
wrong. For this reason it behooves the State to be just and pro- 
tect it against the wrong of its inhuman creator and grant the 
equal rights our free constitution provides to all men, and which 
an Ideal State must grant or fall to its doom. 

We do not bespeak free-love in any sense of that word. On 
the contrary, we ask for the most rigorous laws to protect the 
sacredness of marriage and the home. 

The Secret Schools believe in the four-fold development of 
man. The refinement and awakening to consciousness of body, 
mind, spirit and Soul. 

They believe in, and teach, the bringing into consciousness 
of the God-Spark ("Ye are the Temples of the Living God") 
in man, that he may thereby recognize his divine birthright; 



14 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

the higher development of both his body and intellect; and, 
finally, in the Equal Rights of All men born of Woman, and 
the Ideal State. 

Fraternally in Justice, 

R. Swinburne Clymer. 
''Beverly Hall" 
Quakertown, Pa. 
Jan. 1, 1920. 



INTRODUCTORY 

(First Edition) 
"There is nothing new under the sun" 

We believe it was Koheleth, one of the greatest teachers 
of the Ancient Mysteries, who is given credit for first making 
this remark, though it is possible even he had quoted from some 
other Master of the Ancient school. 

Marie Corelli, the most justly famous author of the pres- 
ent day, in her book, "A Romance of Two Worlds," says : 

"Yours? Why, what can you call your own? Every 
talent you have, every breath you draw, every drop of blood 
flowing in your veins, is lent to you only; you must pay it all 
back. And, as far as the arts go, it is a bad sign of poet, painter 
or musician, who is arrogant enough to call his work his own. 
It never was his and never will be. It is planned- by a higher 
intelligence than his, only he happens to be the hired laborer 
chosen to carry out the conception; a sort of mechanic in whom 
boastfulness looks absurd; as absurd as if one of the stone- 
masons working at the cornice of a cathedral were to vaunt him- 
self as the designer of the whole edifice. And, when a work, 
any work, is completed, it passes out of the laborer's hands; it 
belongs to the age and the people for whom it was accom- 
plished, and, if deserving, goes on belonging to the future ages 
and future peoples." 

Thus with the book now placed before the reader, I wish 
him to remember I do not call it mine. I have merely -taken 
the works of many of those who have labored in this special 
field before me, have endeavored to choose such material, and 
arranged it in such form, as to create a harmonious whole, 



16 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

Even this material, of which I have made use, was seldom 
original with the author from whom I quote. For instance, 
the Secret Doctrine has come down the ages to us; no one being 
able to give us even an idea as to the time when the Mysteries 
were first taught to mankind. These Mysteries were handed 
down by Initiate to Initiate, sometimes taught in Schools estab- 
lished for that purpose, at other times, and more often, taught 
secretly and in places little suspected as being the seats of learn- 
ing, or the caves of Initiation. 

The question may logically be asked by the reader: Why is 
it necessary to repeat the things which have already been writ- 
ten? It is a reasonable question and requires a frank answer: 
"It is for the reason that many of those who gave their attention 
to these doctrines and in their writings quoted from them, did 
so in a negative form. It is our desire to treat these subjects in 
a most positive manner, dealing only with facts as we know 
them, truths that can be verified by u him who truly seeks to 
know" 

In numerous instances, the authors from whom quoted, 
state the things which they had either heard or read; not be- 
longing to and of the Fraternities or Secret Schools in which the 
doctrines or philosophies are taught; having no access to the 
secret records, they have been unable to vouch for the truth or 
the falsity of the claims made. 

Fully aware of the keen interest now taken by countless 
numbers, in the Secret Science, Higher Occultism, Mysticism, 
and Higher Development, known as Initiation; having the rec- 
ords at my command which prove the things herein written to 
be true and beyond contradiction, I have ample reason, and 
offer no excuse, for the compilation of the present work. 

I do not wish to be accused of plagiarism; therefore I 
make these statements. I do not claim that a single line in the 
book is my own, though in many instances the interpretation 
given must be placed wholly to my personal responsibility. If 
the reader does find anything original, or of value, let him give 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 17 

credit to those who I honor as my instructors. By doing so, 
you will give honor to whom it is due. I do ask the reader to 
remember this — whatever is herein written is absolutely true; 
and, if you are willing so to change your life and to become 
worthy, you will be able to find those who are able and ready to 
teach you, to indicate the Path, leading to Initiation — the find- 
ing of the Soul, the Christ, in you. 

History informs us thus: As soon as mankind recognized 
the relation existing between themselves and a Creator, and 
acknowledged moral responsibility for their acts, to a Supreme 
Moral Government, then Religion became a pertinent fact, and 
systems of religious practices were introduced, whereby, in an 
objective form, their subjectivity could be outwardly made 
manifest. 

These systems are divided into Monotheism and Polythe- 
ism. The latter includes Dualism and Tritheism. The lowest 
grade of Polytheism is Fetichism, or idolatry, which teaches the 
worship of inanimate objects, sticks and stones, and the work 
of the hands of men. Next is Pyrolatry, or worship of Fire, and 
Sabaeism, worship of the sun. 

"The first step of past Masters or Reformers was to receive 
a mission and revelation from some God : thus, Amasis and 
Mneves, Lawgivers of the Egyptians, received their laws from 
Mercury (Thoth); Zoroaster of the Bactrians, and Zamolxis, 
lawgiver of the Getes, from Vesta; Zathraustes, of the Armaspi, 
from a good Spirit or Genius; and all taught the doctrine of 
the "Law of Karma" as the only just and equable to all men. 
There is no doubt that all of them were Initiates of the Secret 
Schools then existing, wherein were taught the Secret Doctrine 
and Ancient Mysteries; the Right of every man to Opportunity 
and Justice, and the Mystery of the Philosophy of Fire. 

Rhadamanthus and Minos, lawgivers of Crete, and Lycaon 
of Arcadia had intercourse with Jupiter; Triptolemus of Athens 
was inspired by Ceres, Pythagoras, and Zaleucus; for the Cro- 
tonians and Locrians ascribed their institution to Minerva; 



18 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

Lycurgus of Sparta acted by direction of Apollo; and Romulus 
and Numa of Rome put themselves under the guidance of Con- 
sus and the goddess Egeria. 

The first Chinese monarch was called "Fag-Four" — "The 
Son of Heaven." Tuesco, the founder of the German nations, 
was sent to reduce mankind from their savage and bestial life 
to one of order and society, as signified by his name, which, 
interpreted, means "Interpreter of the gods." Thor and Odin, 
the lawgivers of the Western Goths, laid claim to inspiration 
and to divinity; and they have given the names to two days of 
the week. 

The constant epithets to kings in Homer are Dio-genesis, 
"horn of the gods," and Dio-trepheis, "bred or tutored by the 
gods." When tru: Init'a.ion is once more understood by schol- 
ars, they will no longer deny that man can actually be taught 
by God or the Supreme Intelligence; such is possible. Divine 
Revelation to man or to the mind and the Soul of man is not so 
difficult as one might imagine. Therefore it cannot be ques- 
tioned whether these Masters and Reformers received their in- 
structions direct from God, through development and Initiation, 
because man can come into direct communication with his God 
if he is willing to live the life making such communion and 
instruction possible. 

Plutarch, in "Isis and Osiris," say: "It was a most 
ancient opinion, derived as well by lawgivers as by divines, that 
the world was not made by chance, neither did one cause govern 
all things without opposition." 

This is likewise the doctrine of Zoroaster, in which were 
taught two opposite principles whereby the world was governed. 

The first rePgion, cr initial Mysteries were those of At- 
lantis, known as the Hermetic Philosophy. Later, we find the 
Oriental Mysteries of Isis and Osiris in Egypt. These were 
the same Mysteries as the Hermetic Philosophy of Atlantis, 
merely under a different name. The study of the Mysteries of 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 19 

Isis and Osiris will quickly prove to the student that this was 
the pure Fire Philosophy. 

Zoroaster brought these Mysteries into Persia; Cadmus 
and Inachus, into Greece at large; Orpheus, into Thrace; Me- 
lampsus, into Athens. 

As these Ancient Mysteries were to Isis and Osiris in 
Egypt, so they were to Mythras in Asia; in Samothrace, to the 
Mother of the Gods; in Boeotia to Bacchus; in Cyprus to Venus; 
in Crete to Jupiter; in Athens to Ceres and Prosepine; in 
Amphura to Castor and Pollux; in Lemnos to Vulcan. The 
most noted of these were the Orphic, Bacchic, Eleusinian, 
Samothracian, Cabiric, and Mithriac. It was agreed by Origen 
and Celsus that the Mysteries taught the Immortality of the 
Soul, the Law of Karmaj and also the Law of Reincarnation, 
It was taught in them that that Initiate would be happier than 
other mortals because he had so lived in this world as to learn 
in the present incarnation what it would necessitate the pro- 
fane, many incarnations to comprehend. The Mysteries taught 
it was the design of Initiation to restore the Soul to that state 
whence it fell, as from its native seat of perfection. Epictetus 
taught as follows: "Thus the Mysteries become useful, thus 
we seize the true spirit of them, when we begin to apprehend 
that everything therein was instituted by the ancients for in- 
struction and amendment of life." 

All who desired to become candidates for Initiation into 
any of these Mysteries were required to produce evidence of 
their fitness by due inquiry into their previous life and charac- 
ter. The Eleusinian stood open to none who did not approach 
the Gods with a pure and holy worship, which was originally 
an indispensable condition observed in common in all the Mys- 
teries, and instituted by Bacchus, or Osiris, himself, who would 
initiate none but virtuous and pious men; and it was required 
to have a prepared purity of mind and disposition, as previ- 
ously ordered in the sacrifices, or in prayers, in approaching 
the Mysteries. 



20 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

Max Mueller wrote thus: "In the language of mankind, 
in which everything new is old, and everything old is new, an 
inexhaustible mine has been discovered for researches of this 
kind. Language still bears the impress of the earliest thoughts 
of man, obliterated, it may be, buried under new thoughts, yet 
here and there still recoverable in their sharp original outline. 
The growth of language is continuous; and, by continuing our 
researches backward from the most modern to the most ancient 
strata, the every elements and roots of human speech have been 
reached, and with them the elements and roots of human 
thought. What lies beyond the beginnings of language, how- 
ever interesting it may be to the philologist, does not yet belong 
to the history of man, in the true and original sense of that 
word. Man means the thinker, and the first manifestation of 
thought is speech. 

"But more surprising than the continuity of the growth 
of language is the continuity in the growth of religion. Of 
religion, as of language, it may be said that in it everything new 
is old, and everything old is new, and that there has been no 
entirely new religion since the beginning of the world. The 
elements and roots of religion were there as far back as we can 
trace the history of man; and the history of religion, like the 
history of language, shows us throughout a succession of new 
combinations of the same radical elements. An Intuition of 
God, a sense of human weakness and dependence, a belief in 
the divine government of the world, a distinction between good 
and evil, and a hope for a better life— these are some of the 
radical elements of all religions. Though sometimes hidden, 
rhey rise again and again to the surface. Though frequently 
distorted they tend again and again to their perfect form, though 
always under another name." 

St. Augustine himself, in accordance with this idea, said: 
"What is now called the Christian religion has existed among 
the ancients, ?nd was not absent from the beginning of the 
human race, until Jesus came in the flesh, from which time the 



jma — _ . — ! 1 ■ ■ 

PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 21 

leligion which existed already, began to be called Christian." 

The underlying principles in all true religions is the Phil- 
osophy of Fire. The very foundation of the Secret Doctrine 
and the Ancient Mysteries is this same Philosophy of Fire — 
Symbol of God — Life of Love. In the work before the reader, 
quotations have been made from the Secret Science of the 
Greater Fraternities which were instrumental in shaping the 
religious beliefs of the people. The only one not thus consid- 
ered is Zoroaster and his doctrine. 

Before the time of Zoroaster, the Persians, like the early 
Egyptians, worshipped in the open air, long after other nations 
had constructed temples, as they considered the broad expanse 
of the heavens as a sublime covering for their devotion of the 
Deity. Their places of sacrifice were much like those of the 
northern nations of Europe, composed of circles of upright 
stones, rough and unhewn. They abominated images, and wor- 
shipped the Sun and Fire, as representative of the Omnipresent 
Deity. 

The Jews, even though they did not belong to the Inner 
Circle of any Priesthood and therefore merely followed the 
exoteric religious ceremonies, were not exempt from the worship 
of Fire. God appeared in the Cherubim, over the gate of Eden 
as a Flaming Sword, and to Abraham as Flame of Fire, to 
Moses as a Fire in the bush at Horeb, and to the whole assem- 
bly of the people at Sinai when he descended upon the moun- 
tain in Fire. Moses himself told them that their God was a 
consuming fire, which was reechoed more than once, and later 
the Jews were weak enough to worship the material fire, in lieu 
of the Invisible and Eternal God. Zoroaster succeeded in per- 
suading them to enclose their sacred fire altars in covered tow- 
ers, because, being on elevated and exposed hills, the fire was 
liable to be extinguished by storms. These were circular build- 
ings, covered with domes, having small openings at the top 
allowing the smoke to escape. 

Undoubtedly a difference of opinion existed between the 



22 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

various sects, as is illustrated by the following story: "A Jew 
entered a Parsee temple and beheld the Sacred Fire. "What!" 
said he to the priest, "do you worship the fire?" "Not the 
fire," answered the priest, "U is to us the emblem of the Sun 
and of his genial heat." "Do you then worship the sun as your 
God?" questioned the Jew. "Know ye not that this luminary 
also is but a work of the Almighty Creator?" "We know it," 
replied the priest, "but the uncultivated man requires a sensible 
sign in order to form a conception of the Most High, and is not 
the sun, the incomprehensible source of light, an image of the 
invisible being who blesses and preserves all things?" "Do 
you people, then," rejoined the Israelite, "distinguish the type 
from the original? They call the sun their God, and, descend- 
ing even from this to a baser object, they kneel before an earthly 
flame. Ye amuse the outward but blind the inward eye; and 
while ye hold to them the earthly, ye draw from them the heav- 
enly Light! Thou shalt not make unto thyself any image or 
likeness." "How do you designate the Supreme Being?" asked 
the Parsee. "We call him Jehovah Adonai, that is, Lord who is, 
who was, and who will be," answered the Jew. "Your appela- 
tion is grand and sublime," said the Parsee, "but it is awful 
too." A Christian then drew nigh and said "We call him 
Father." The Pagan and the Jew looked at each other and 
said, "Here is at once an image and a reality, it is a word of 
the heart." Therefore they all raised their eyes to heaven, and 
said, with reverence and love, "Our Father," and they took each 
other by the hand, and all three called one another, "brother." 
The names of the various religious systems may be differ- 
ent, but the underlying principle, when actually understood, is 
ever the same. It is immaterial what exoteric system of re- 
ligion may be studied, it will always be found that God is a 
"Consuming Fire." In the Ancient Mysteries this is even more 
a fact because therein we are taught what this living fire actu- 
ally is, where it is, and how and whence man received it. 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 23 

"Ever since the most ancient times Divine Wisdom has 
taught the same doctrine through the lips of the wise. Hermes 
Trismegistus, Confucius and Zoroaster, Buddha and Jesus who 
became the Christ, Socrates, Saint Martin and Jacob Boehmen, 
Theophrastus Paracelsus, Cornelius Agrippa, Shakespeare and 
Shoppenhauer, P. B. Randolph, M. D., James R. Phelps, 
M. D., Freeman B. Dowd, Dr. Edward H. Brown, and others. 
They have all taught the same truths, more or less complete, 
because they were all from the same school of philosophy; and 
each one of these teachers clothed the truths they had in a form 
best suiting his own understanding and best adapted to the 
comprehension of his disciples and the times in which they 
lived. * 

None may claim these doctrines as strictly their own. Even 
Jesus said: "The doctrines which I teach are not my own, but 
it is the Truth which teaches them through me. He that teaches 
his own doctrines and theories speaketh of himself, he is acting 
under the impulse of earthly ambition and seeketh his own glory 
and not the glory of God ; but he that seeks to glorify — not him- 
self, but God — by giving expression to the truth of which he is 
conscious, is true, and no evil can be in him. Live so that you 
may know the truth; not by external appearances and argumen- 
tation, but by its own inherent power. Be true, and you will 
know the truth." 

"The organism of man," he said, "resembles a kingdom, 
its capital is the Mind, and its temple the Soul. In that capital 
and temple there are many false prophets, as there are in Jeru- 
salem. There are the Pharisees of sophistry and false logic, 
credulity, and scepticism; and the 'scribes' are the prejudices 
and erroneous opinions engrafted upon the memory." Do not 
listen to what these false prophets say, but listen to the voice 
of wisdom that speaks in your heart; for verily I say unto you, 
the temple, built of speculations which the scribes have erected, 
will be destroyed; and not one of the dogmas and theories of 



24 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

which it has been constructed will remain when the day of 
judgment appears. 

"See the truth enters your heart, bearing the palm leaf, 
the symbol of peace (even Jesus made use of symbolism). Let 
it abide in you, and abide yourself in the truth. There is no 
other worship acceptable to the Universal God, but to keep his 
commandments, which he reveals to you through the power of 
Divine Wisdom, whose voice speaks in your Higher Conscious- 
ness. Love one another; and, as you grow in unselfish love, so 
will you grow in Wisdom. 

"Open your hearts and see the image of the true God 
within them. He is not to be found in man-made churches; and 
if any one tells you, Christ is in this church, or he is in that 
one, do not believe it, but seek for God within your own heart* 
Let not the Pharisees and the Scribes and the intellectual pow- 
ers** of your own mind mislead you, but listen to the divine 
voice of Intuition, which speaks at the center of your Soul." 

Thus, Jesus agrees with the fundamental doctrine of the 
Secret School, and with the instructions given in the Fraternity 
of the Present day, namely, that man is the product of his own 
thoughts, he is that which he creates in himself by the way he 
thinks and lives; for his external form is merely the outward 
symbol of his internal character, modified by the want of plas- 
ticity of the gross matter composing his body; for this may 
not be sufficiently plastic to change in form as rapidly as 
his thoughts. The matter composing the Soul is creative. If 
our thoughts are continually low and vulgar, the soul will be- 
come correspondingly degraded; but, if we are continually 



*This is the Basic Fundamental Doctrine of the Rose Cross. "Ye 
are the temples of the living God." Consequently man must build in, and 
include within his being, all things. 

**The Rose Cross teaches intellectual attainments are desirable and 
to be encouraged, but intellectual brilliancy alone will not result in Im- 
mortality ; on the contrary, it may be the direct means of preventing its 
possessor from following the lowly Path which would lead to Soul attain- 
ment — Immortality. 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 25 

thinking of a high Ideal, our Ideal will take form within our- 
selves. If we are satisfied with a belief in a historical Jesus 
without seeking to bring to birth or to enable a Christ to grow 
within ourselves, such a belief will not merely be useless, but 
will even be an impediment in our way towards perfection. 

The object of the Secret Science; the Ancient Mysteries; 
the Secret Doctrine; of Initiation, and of all Living Religions 
is one and the same thing, that is, to ennoble mankind and to 
awaken in men a realization of the divinity of the Soul within 
themselves. Religion in its theoretical aspect means a real 
knowledge of the relations which exist between man and the 
external source from which his Soul emanated in the beginning. 
Religion in its practical aspect means the union of man with 
God—a, union that cannot be effected through the external in- 
terference or permission of a clergyman, no matter how holy 
he may be, but must be effected by the power of the internal 
will and desire. There is no real knowledge to be attained by 
merely learning a theory, there is no real understanding unless 
the theory is confirmed by practice, in other words, by living the 
doctrine believed. 

Such knowledge is acquired neither by the study of theology 
and philosophy nor by moralizing. It does not depend on any 
theoretical information in regard to terrestial or celestial things, 
nor can spiritual (Soul) regeneration be attained by leading a 
virtuous life for fear of the consequences that are likely to fol- 
low if we indulge in evil thoughts and acts. It can be attained 
only by a realization of the truth within our own selves. There 
is nothing to prevent' any man from arriving at such a compre- 
hension, except the lower tendencies of his mortal nature. The 
process of Regeneration, or Initiation, therefore, involves a con- 
tinual battle with the lower self, and an unceasing fight between 
Spiritual aspirations and earthly desires, in which the Soul must 
gain the victory over matter or ultimately lose its identity as an 
individual being. 



26 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

All the boasted study of the science learned in schools 
contains but little real knowledge. In it is little of the absolute 
truth. It is merely relative knowledge, and refers to the rela- 
tions which external (material) objects bear to one another; 
and all this knowledge, however useful it may be as long as we 
live in a world of sense, sensation and matter, will be utterly 
worthless to us when we enter that state of being wherein mat- 
ter, as such, no longer has a part. The only true science, which 
is really useful to us in time and eternity, in our present state, 
not less than in the future, is the practical knowledge of the 
regeneration of man. 

The authors herein quoted from, and to whom I desire to 
give full credit, are: Paschal Beverly Randolph, M. D., 
Frantz Hartman, M. D., J. D. Buck, M. D., P. H. Phelon, 
M. D., James R. Phelps, M. D., Hargrave Jennings, and 
Eduard Schure. Each one of these great teachers has been as 
important to the present work as the other, and equal credit is 
therefore due to all. 

In the body of the work, the text is not often interrupted by 
giving author's names in immediate connection with quotations, 
it being the compiler's desire to give the teachings of Masters 
with the least possible interruption of thought. 

If the work will be the means of opening the eyes of a few 
and will influence them to try "to find their own Soul," I will 
be well satisfied. 

R. Swinburne Clymer. 
"Beverly Hall" 
Quakertown, Pa. 
Dec. 27, 1919. 



Tke Ancient Mysteries 

All Religious and all Occult and Mystical Schools have their 
Foundation in the Ancient Mysteries taught in the Secret Schools 
of Antiquity as they are today. 

"The belief in a Supreme Power is inherent in every hu- 
man being; and, so thoroughly interwoven with our nature is 
this sentiment, that it is impossible for anyone, at any period 
of life, wholly to divest himself of it. 

"When the reflecting man looks around upon all the ob- 
jects about him, the question naturally arises : 'What has called 
this world into existence? Why does it exist, and what is its 
ultimate destiny ? Why do I exist, and what will become of me 
after death?' The answers to these questions can only be given 
by and through a long course of philosophical investigation and 
individual training. These problems have been the study of the 
ablest men from the earliest ages, and have given rise to all the 
various systems of philosophy and religion, which have pre- 
vailed in all times, beginning with the first conscious being and 
coming down to our own day and generation. 

Of one thing we are certain, the first religion that we have 
any account of, was far superior to any of those formulated in 
later centuries because it was a religion of both living and be- 
lieving in place of a religion of faith only. I have reference to 
the philosophy of the Atlantians. Theirs was the pure Fire 



NOTE : The Ancient Mysteries, Secret Doctrines, Philosophy of the 
Secret Schools, and Divine Mysteries are synonymous. 



28 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

Philosophy; not only was it a virgin and absolute philosophical 
religion but, at the same time, it gave them those powers which 
a truly religious life will always confer upon the faithful 
neophyte. The Philosophy of Fire of the Atlantians not merely 
inculcated a strict morality, a blameless life and loyalty to the 
school which taught it, but it likewise demanded obedience to 
the Laws governing health, strength and power. This phi- 
losophy, under whatever name it has since passed, always gives 
wisdom and power to its Initiates. It is only with these phi-, 
losophies I will deal at the present and set forth the history, in 
compact form, of those systems of philosophy which worship at 
the Shrine of Fire, symbol at once of Love and of God — and 
believe this to be all potent. The Philosophers of these sys- 
tems do not worship the Fire as the profane suppose, but recog- 
nize the flame of the Fire as a symbol of that supreme hierarch 
which they believe in and know to be all powerful and absolute 
and which can be personified only by the fire which is Life, 
and Love, which is Eternal. 

An author has said: "It is to be presumed that, when the 
minds of men were directed to the subject of the mysterious 
things of nature which they could not comprehend, they were 
forced to conceal their ignorance of the ultimate causes of all 
the phenomena by which they were constantly surrounded, and 
as constantly called upon to explain, that then, as well as at 
present, their inventive talents were exercised to conceal their 
ignorance by systems of terminology." 

This is not altogether true, the Mysteries did not have their 
origin in such a manner, but rather, because the Initiates of 
these Mysteries were aware it would be unwise to give the true 
meaning of the Mysteries to the masses ; therefore invented sym- 
bols and ceremonies thereby teaching those who were not pre- 
pared to receive the truth or who were unable to worship God in 
the abstract. 

"It is, however, conceded that the rites and ceremonies 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 29 

were originally pure in character and had the power to im- 
press the minds of the Initiates with a suitable feeling of awe 
and reverence for those who taught the Mysteries, and likewise 
a desire to be personally benefitted through obedience to the 
instructions such teachers were willing to give." 

One who claims to be an authority on the subject has said : 
"It is impossible to definitely assert in what country the Mys- 
teries were first introduced. Authors differ very materially upon 
that question. It is, however, very certain that, while there are 
various changes to be found in the Mysteries of the different na- 
tions of the Orient, there was a great similarity in them all; so 
much so that we may conclude either that they were all inde- 
pendent copies from a great criginal system or that they were 
propagated one from another, until they were spread over the 
whole of Asia, Europe, and that part of Africa peopled from 
Asia and in constant intercourse therewith. The first wave 
from that region, now known as Arya Varta, was to the South- 
east, and across the great rivers, into that part of India where 
they found a people descended from the Turanian families, who 
had come from the North and Northeast. We are informed that, 
when the Aryans entered the country of India, they carried with 
them traditions, manners, customs and religious ideas, which 
differed very materially from those possessed by the first inhabi- 
tants, Who were, no doubt, of Turanian descent." 

This author is mistaken in several respects. We know 
absolutely that these mysteries primarily came from Atlantis, 
then connected with Yucatan where the ruins of the Fire Phi- 
losophers still remain, and that the Initiation into these Mys- 
teries was first had there. We know that in the Temples of At- 
lantis these Mysteries were first taught to the Neophytes and 
that these Mysteries were brought into Asia and India, thence 
into Egypt by the Initiates of the older School of Atlantis. 

The author may well say: ''While there are various 
changes to be found in the Mysteries of the different nations of 



30 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

the Orient, it is also certain there was a great similarity in 
them all." Why should they be unlike in their spirit, though 
possibly different in the letter, since all of them were from the 
same source? True, changes have been made in both form and 
name; but this has only been done to meet the customs and 
race beliefs of the various people and ages. All the Secret 
Schools founded on the Fire Philosophy come from the one 
source; in their spirit they are the same, simply taking form 
under different names, as the Fraternity now called the Rose 
Cross was known as the Paracelsians, Alchemists and Illumi- 
nated Brethren It has ever been the same Great School under 
names in harmony with the age and the needs of the peoples. 

The Great School of the Magi, the Initiates, the Alchemists 
and the Secret Priesthood, known and designated also by other 
names, has never for a moment ceased to exist; this School has 
often, though secret and unknown, shaped the course of em- 
pires, and controlled the fate of nations. France and its Na- 
poleon Marleon is an excellent example; without the help of the 
Count Germaine, Napoleon never could have been the mighty 
master of Strategy he was, a mastership torn from him when he 
became self-centered and arrogant, working for glory instead 
of humanity's good. 

These Initiates and Masters, seeking always the line of 
least resistance, and knowing both when and how to act, having 
always in view only one object, that is, the welfare and progress 
of Humanity and the greatest good to the greatest number, 
despising fame and worldly honors, working "without the hope 
of fee or reward," concealed their labors, and either influenced 
those who knew them not, to do their work or worked through 
agents pledged to conceal their very existence. 

To the public generally, which cannot comprehend why one 
should do unselfish service without hope of compensation, this 
is a matter of little interest or importance. To the Seeker for 
Wisdom and enlightenment and the Initiate, it is of great inter- 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 31 



est, indicating as it does, the role played by the masters of the 
Secret Schools in their desire to be of help to humanity. It 
will likewise reveal to them the meaning and goal of human 
evolution and development, and give them the unqualified assur- 
ance that such development is being aided by those who know, 
now, as it has not been for many centuries. This work has 
now become possible, because of a cycle of enlightenment, when 
the workers are unlikely to be sacrificed by an Inquisition, 
although they may be persecuted for their beliefs or teachings. 
Such Secret Masters and Initiates do exist, and they are truly 
possessed of profound knowledge; they are ready to help the 
denizens of the world; but these must be ready and willing to 
receive help if they are to be benefitted by it. Guided by a 
complete Philosophy, armed with a Key to Symbolism, aided 
by the Initiates and the Secret Schools, the Lost Mysteries may 
be restored and confer their benefits upon the races of men now 
so badly in need of the instructions and help these schools can 
confer. 

Mere vulgar curiosity and secrecy alone have never been, 
and never will be, the password to the adytum of true Initia- 
tion. It necessitates something more than curiosity to find the 
Gate of the Path that leads to Soul Illumination — Initiation. 
It requires a heart that throbs for the welfare of humanity and 
a Love for Equal Opportunity and justice to all. He alone 
who seeks Initiation because he desires help and thereby seeks to 
confer a benefit upon his fellow man, can hope to reach the Goal 
of Attainment. 

A history of those who have become Initiates would neces- 
sarily be tinged with a touch of pathos, on account of the many 
sorrowful disappointments it would record, in the case of ear- 
nest souls seeking, with sincerity and in truth, for the "Lost 
Word of the Masters," the Key that Unlocks the Magic Wand 
of Power, and points the way to the Soul and proofs of Immor- 
tality, who, for their earnestness and sincerity, and their loyalty 



32 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

to those who taught them, ultimately were publicly executed 
as malefactors and enemies of State or Church, as most of them 
have been in the past. 

However, no one has sought the Path to Initiation in love 
and humility, without having found entrance to the Secret 
Schools, and, proving faithful and loyal, reach the Goal where 
they were brought face to face with the Sublime Mysteries — 
the knowledge that Love leads to God; that both Love and God 
are symbolized by the Sacred, Everburning Fire, that same Fire 
which Moses of old saw burning in the bush as he would have 
passed it and from whence issued the Voice which commanded 
him to be the saviour of his race. 

That these Secret Schools and their Masters should exist 
throughout all time and remain without a history seems at first 
a strange paradox. The enemies of the Mysteries and Sacred 
Philosophy will urge this fact as a reason for rejecting all that 
is herein contained, ignorant of the fact that few histories of 
any people or any epoch are better founded. Foremost among 
these detractors or deniers will be found the bigoted sectarian 
and the modern materialist. With each of these, the real gen- 
ius of the Mysteries is in perpetual conflict. For the first, the 
Equal Rights and Privilege of Justice to all men, is a dead 
letter; for he believes only he himself and his chosen associates 
can be saved. For the second, the materialist, the recognition 
of the Divine Principle in Man, and belief in the Immortality 
of the Soul, will prove a stumbling block of equal terror. For- 
tunately, the number of bigoted sectarians and out-and-out 
materialists are few; but these few seemingly are in authority 
and able to persecute all those who may not be to their way of 
thinking. The historical deficiency referred to is by no means 
without a parallel. That superstructure known as Christianity 
has, it is true, many historical phases; of dogmas the most con- 
tradictory; of doctrines promulgated in one age, and enforced 
with vice-regal authority and severe penalties for denial and 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 33 

disbelief, only to be denied and repudiated as "damnable 
heresy" in another age. In the meantime, the origin of these 
doctrines and the personality of the Man of Sorrows around 
which these traditions cluster receives no adequate support from 
authentic history. 

Simply because there is no true history of the birth and life 
of Jesus to be had, or for the reason orthodox Christianity has 
not been able to produce a history of those they make 
pretensions of following, but whom they have never really 
known, must we conclude that it is all a fable, that there was no 
Jesus of Nazareth; that the legend was put forth and kept alive 
by designing men, thereby to support their pretensions to author- 
ity? Are historical facts and personal biography alone entitled 
to credit? While everlasting principles, Divine Beneficence, 
and the laying down of one's life for another are of no account ? 
Is that which has inspired the hope and brightened the lives 
of the down-trodden and despairing for ages a mere fancy, a 
designing lie? Tear every shred of history from the life of 
Jesus, today, and prove beyond controversy that he never existed, 
and Humanity, from its heart of hearts, would create him again 
tomorrow and justify the creation by every need of the daily 
life of man. The historical contention might be given up, to- 
tally ignored, and the whole character, genius, and mission of 
Jesus, who became the Christ, be none the less real, beneficent 
and eternal, with all of its human and dramatic episodes. Ex- 
plain it as you will, it can never be explained away; the char- 
acter remains; and, whether historical or Ideal, it is real and 
eternal. Christ is no myth. 

This digression serves to illustrate a principle of Interpre- 
tation. The Traditions and the Symbols of Mysticism and the 
Philosophy of Fire or the Pathway to the Soul, do not derive 
their real value from historical data, but from the universal 
and eternal truths which they embody, and from the fact that 
all the teachings and symbolism of the Secret Schools are found- 



34 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

cd on the Divine Philosophy that the Soul is a smaller edition 
of the Father, that this Soul is manifested through Fire in the 
form of Love for one's fellow man, for truth, for the greatest 
good to all, and, finally, in the heart's desire to portray God. 
Love is the only bond that can bind man to man, and all men to 
God. Were these representations historical episodes only, the 
world in its cyclic revolution would long since have swept by 
and bur'ed £ em : n eternal oblivion. They are facts, im- 
parted by Initiate to Initiate in the Secret Schools, from time 
immemorial even as now. Such great truths, obscured and 
lost in one age by misinterpretation or persecution, rise, Phoe- 
nix-like, rejuvenated, in the next. We should not say lost, they 
are merely suppressed and held in the secret Archives of the 
Great Schcxl to be a ain promulgated when the time is oppor- 
tune. They are immortal truths, knowing neither decay nor 
diatb. . hey . re .ike Divine images concealed in a block of 
stone, which many artists assail with mallet and chisel, square 
and compass, only, perchance, to release a distorted idol. Only 
the Master V. orkman, the Initiate, can so chip away the stone as 
to iweal .'n all ts grandeur and beauty the Divine Ideal, and en- 
dow it with the breath of life. Such is the builder of the Soul. 
C remonial Initiation can never make one either a Master or an 
Initiate. It requiies a Mas er-Teacher to accept man in his 
crude or m^t rialistic s ate, and through instruction, training 
and development "tad him to Initiation; and this can only be 
accomplished by a process of growth and a rigid system of 
training. 

No genuine Mystic, imbued with the spirit of liberality, 
will treat any religion with derision or coniempt, or will exclude 
from fellowship any ens who believes in the existence of God, 
the Fight of free Choice to all men and Freedom of action so 
long as such action does not interfere with others. This spirit 
is the foundation of Mysticism, and any departure from it leads 
away from the Path of Wisdom :.nd directly opposite to the 
fundamental thought of the A.:. A.:. The Secret Schools have, 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 35 

for ages, held aloft the torch light of Toleration, Equity and 
Fraternity. The bigoted sectarian, whoever he may be, divides 
the world into two classes: Those who, with zeal and blind 
faith, accept his dogmas; and those who do not. The first he 
calls "brother," and the second class he regards as enemies 
who must be persecuted. 

The Secret Schools, it is true, demand obedience to Laws 
and instructions from all those who desire to travel the Path. 
but these Schools do not, and never did, attempt to force upon 
outsiders any of their beliefs or philosophies. 

The distinction between the esoteric and the exoteric doc- 
trines was always, even from the very earliest times, preserved 
among the Initiates. It came from the Egyptian School up to 
the time of Alexander; and after that they resorted for instruc- 
tions, and the Mysteries, to other schools, namely, to those of 
Asia as well as those of ancient Thrace, Sicily, Etruria and 
other countries. 

The more profound secrets of the Mysteries cannot be re- 
vealed or taught by means of Ceremonial Initiation. They be- 
long only to those few who are willing to live the life and there- 
by grow into knowledge conferred by such living. To exper- 
ience is to know. To be taught is merely to believe and noth- 
ing more. These secrets must be sought by the individual; the 
Neophyte is debarred from possessing them solely by his own 
inattention to the hints everywhere given by the Initiates of the 
Secret Schools, such as the Magi, the Rose Cross, the Alchem- 
ists and those of Eulis. If one prefers to treat the whole subject 
with contempt, to deny that any such real knowledge exists, it 
becomes evident that he not only closes the door against the 
possibility of himself possessing such knowledge, but even be- 
comes impervious to any evidence of its existence that might 
come to him. He has no one but himself to blame if he is left 
in darkness. "Seek and ye shall find, Knock and it shall be 
opened unto you," such has ever been the Divine Command, 



36 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

"So long as the struggle for bare existence involves, as it 
does today, the greater part of the energy, time and opportuni- 
ties of man, he may never discover the real meaning of life or 
the purpose of human existence. Even this much may be dis- 
cerned from physical evolution alone; from the study of the 
human brain, in which there is a continually increasing por- 
tion of gray substance set free from the functions incident to 
the preservation of the physical structure, and evidently de- 
signed to be appropriated to separate and Higher use. Mere 
intellectual activities alone, connected with the physical plane, 
with the maintenance and enjoyment of life, will not explain the 
philosophy of cerebral development. It is only when man 
divides his day of twenty-four hcurs into three equal parts, 
one-third for labor wherewith to obtain the necessities of life, 
one-third for rest, and the other third for recreation, self-im- 
provement and the awakening of his higher self, that he will 
become the balanced being God, his Creator, had intended he 
should be. This is the rational and natural doctrine taught by 
the Initiates and Instructors in the Secret Schools. 

There are latent powers and almost infinite capabilities in 
man, the meaning of which he has hardly dreamed of possess- 
ing. Nor will leisure and intellectual cultivation alone reveal 
these powers. It is only through a complete, balanced philos- 
ophy of the entire nature of man and the capacities and destiny 
of the human soul supplemented by the use of such knowledge, 
that man will eventually come into possession of his birthright 
and begin the journey to perfection; it is such a path the Ini- 
tiates would lead man to follow, knowing as they do, from long 
experience, it is the only one that leads to the Goal of Rejuvena- 
tion of the entire bring called man. 

Two conditions at the present moment stand squarely in 
the way of such achievement. First, anarchy and confusion, a 
non-belief in Law and Order, the result of selfishness in social 
relations. Ihis plight can be overcome in but one way, viz., 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 37 

the recognition of the unqualified Equal Rights of all Men to 
seek Knowledge and Wisdom in their own way, not as a theory, 
a religious duty, or a mere matter of sentiment, but as a fact in 
nature, a Universal and Divine Law, the penalty for the viola- 
tion of which is precisely the conditions under which humanity 
now struggles and suffers. 

The second condition, which has given rise to "Confusion 
among the Workmen" in building the social temple, and the in- 
dividual habitation of man, are false ideals, inefficient methods 
of education, and almost total ignorance of the finer forces, 
potentialities and Soul Fire possessed by man until these Di- 
vine inheritances are well-nigh starved to death and only the 
physical and intellectual part of man survives. The result of 
this ignorance may be seen in the fact that hardly one indi- 
vidual in a million who has both leisure and opportunity 
attains real advancement in the evolution of the higher powers 
possessed, nor is he cognizant of the fact that he may become a 
living soul with all that such possession might mean to him. 

This ought not to be so, nor need it be, if earnest men 
and women would seek diligently, first for the cause of all our 
ills, and second, for an efficient remedy. This remedy is found, 
first, in knowledge; second, in obedience to Creative Laws. 

If real knowledge and the nature of the Soul and the des- 
tiny of man had never existed, our present status would be 
pitiable in the extreme. But, when we demonstrate that this 
knowledge always existed, at times only in the Secret Archives 
of the Great School, that it became degraded by selfishness and 
then suppressed by design; that for centuries designing Priests, 
many of whom would have disgraced a scaffold, but have 
been canonized as saints, have done their utmost to deprive hu- 
manity of this knowledge what shall humanity say? Shall man- 
kind preach the Equal Rights of All Men, Toleration to all 
Beliefs and yet seek revenge on the priesthood? A thousand 
times, no! but rather leave priests and proletariat to settle their 



38 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 



own affairs and go their own way; and let us go to work 
ourselves to establ'sh the ancient Schools wherein all those who 
seek may be taught the Way of Life. Knowing these things as 
we do, can we condemn the Arch Fraternities who have for a 
time hidden this knowledge so saving it for future races? 
Should we not rather be thankful to them for keeping it in its 
virgin purity? In all our popular present religious instruc- 
tions, beginning with childhood, and through all the ministra- 
tions of religion thereafter, we are taught to look very sharply 
after the salvation of cur souls; and this in the face of the 
statement that a very large proportion of the human race will 
eventually be utterly lost, or damned, for all eternity. Science 
forms another picture by trying to demonstrate that the 'struggle 
for existence is a necessary condition for improvement in every 
department of man's nature, pointing out that all the great 
leaders of the past were indefatigable workers, while the lag- 
gard fell prey to the strong, which is undoubtably true but does 
not go far enough, dealing only with the physical man, forget- 
ful of the spiritual counterpart. To the scientist, self-preserva- 
tion at the expense of others of the human family, is regarded 
as the "first Law of Life." What is the result? The world is 
chaotic, man is against man, the spiritual life of all nations 
is at its lowest ebb, faith in law and order at a minimum, con- 
fidence in neither Legislator, Physician or Minister. Until we 
can bring man to an understanding that he is a complex, com- 
bined being, pointing out to him that he must develop the inner, 
the spiritual being in harmony with the external man, this chaos 
will continue to increase until revolution which turns man 
against man in blood, shall cast the pall of night over humanity. 
Is it not reasonable to suppose that if humanity generally 
were possessed of real knowledge it might govern their actions 
so shaping their lives as to avoid the pitfalls of ignorance and 
set its feet on the line of a Higher Race Development ? Religion, 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 39 

that of the Soul, which comes from the heart rather than the 
head, offers Faith; and through Faith all things become pos- 
sible. This is the Science-Religion of the Initiates and the 
basis of the Secret Schools. 

There is but one source of real knowledge, namely, self- 
awakening, development and enlightenment through the Mystic 
Philosophy. The doctrine of Equal Rights and Opportunity to 
all men, must be, and is, the only basis of true Ethics; and the 
Great Republic which is jealous of the Rights of every man 
great or small, is the Ideal State. If these concepts were ac- 
cepted and acted upon, there would result time, opportunity 
and the power to apprehend the deeper and higher problems Oi 
the origin, nature and destiny of man. "Man is not man as yet 
and will not be until he has sought, and found, his Soul, thai 
Living Fire which allies him with the Creator of all mankind, 
namely, God the Father of All, the high and the low, the wise 
and the ignorant, and who would have the ignorant to become 
wise; the weak like the strong, the low equal to the greatest. 
What man may become or what he might accomplish undtu 
favorable conditions, is seldom dreamed of by humanity and is 
only visualized for us by the lives of the great masters of the 
past. 

There is widespread and increasing conviction that true 
education — that which deals with the whole man — would prove 
a panacea for all our evils and that, if we could begin with the 
training of the children, we could eventually reform society; 
that even the children of vicious parentage might be trans 
formed from criminals in embryo to useful citizens in whom no 
longer lingered any trace of the desire to commit crime or dis- 
obey law. Such a system of education would not merely include 
the branches at present taught in our schools and colleges, bu; 
would likewise include a harmonious physical training; a 



40 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

method of mental development and thorough instruction in con- 
structive sex science.* 

The demand for a real, higher, inner education and train- 
ing is becoming insistent. Such an education would neces- 
sarily mean the bringing out of the highest in man, it would be 
a four-fold and rational development of the entire being. Only 
by teaching the truth, not as supposed to be by materialist or 
theological educators, but as the Soul, the Higher self in man 
teaches man what is right, will the race be elevated. Selfish- 
( ness, or material gain only, is the key-note of the present-day 
educational system; hence it has miserably failed and establish- 
ed caste and class distinction. Nothing so shrouds the Higher 
Self, the real in man, in darkness and misconception as selfish- 
ness; this is the primary cause of the universal mistrust and 
hatred between classes and races. 

It should be toward this Higher Knowledge, once termed 
the Ancient Mysteries, which all useful and rational acquire- 
ment tend. And why should our efforts cease short of the very 
highest? All education that does not follow this direction, with 
the final goal consistently and continually in view, is false, and 
is necessarily a failure. If this were not actually true, would 
individuals and nations be heading toward chaos as they now 
are? Certainly established systems of education and training 
have had a fair trial and what has been the result? Mistrust 
of each other, anarchy, socialism and disloyalty to the estab- 
lished government, condemnation of creeds and churchism, dis- 
belief in medical science, and mistrust of the Courts of Justice, 
together with an almost universal sex degradation and millions 
of bodies staggering under the load of diseases the result of vice. 

This Higher Education, this Ancient Wisdom, is a knowl- 



*The "Humanitarian Society" was founded for the express purpose 
of imparting instruction in Inner Sex Laws, Higher Race Development, 
Dietetics for Health and Strength, and Mental Development for Con- 
structive purposes. 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 41 

edge of the powers and requirements of the physical being, an 
understanding of the Soul, of its origin, nature, potentialities, 
and the laws that govern its evolution and development; and 
this is precisely the knowledge which modern science fails to 
afford, but which the Ancient Science and the Secret Schools 
have taught in the Mysteries, and is open today to all who 
truly seek. All preliminary study and training lead up to this 
— "The real measure of a man." Just as all life should be 
constant evolution, so much all real knowledge, or Philoso- 
phy, be an Initiation, proceeding in a natural order, advanc- 
ing by specific "degrees" of growth and unfoldment. These 
"Degrees" are materialized to some extent in the modern 
Masonic Fraternity, an order which has much of the material 
and hidden Mysteries of Antiquity, but which has lost the key, 
except in a few rare instances. In the true Initiation, that of 
gradual growth and becoming, the candidate or neophyte must 
always be worthy and well qualified, duly and truly prepared. 
That is, he must perceive that such knowledge exists, must de- 
sire to possess it, be willing to make every effort and what- 
ever personal sacrifice is necessary for its acquisition. He must 
have passed beyond the stage of blind belief or superstition, the 
bondage of fear, the age of fable, and the dominion of appetite 
and sense desires. This is the meaning of being "duly and 
truly prepared." He must prove his fitness in these directions, 
no less than show the absence in himself of that subtler form of 
intellectual selfishness which comes from the possession of wha! 
usually passes as knowledge, and from the desire for dominion 
through it over others less highly endowed, for selfish purposes 
of his own. His motives, therefore, alone, will determine that 
he is "worthy and well qualified." 

It is undoubtedly true that on every plane of life, in the 
process by which knowledge is acquired — always by experience 
— man becomes that which he seeks to know. That is, knowing 
is a progresive becoming through experience. There results, 



42 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 



therefore, a continuous transformation or transmutation of the 
motives, ideals and perceptions of the individuality, whenever 
in his daily experience in life he is placed on the lines of least 
resistance or the natural order of Evolution. This is the science 
and philosophical meaning of true Initiation as taught by the 
Secret Schools and is* termed the Alchemical Process of trans- 
forming or transmutation the lesser into the greater.* 

There is, at the present moment, so much of the common- 
place which passes as knowledge, and is accepted as such by 
the worthy, though unthinking student, which is so utterly void 
of comprehension, that unless a person is familiar with this 
line of thought, he would not really be able to see the truth 
and the bearing of the statement that man always becomes that 
which he really attempts to live and practice. This is the fun- 
damental reason why the mere inculcation of moral precepts so 
often fails entirely in transforming character, and why there is 
so much lip-service and so little actual service one for the other. 
When men once comprehend this, they will understand the 
Mystery of Alchemy, the Transformation, or Transmutation, of 
baser metals into the pure and shining gold. Once they com- 
prehend, once the Conscience has become awakened and they 
have learned to know, they will begin to become; for, in the pro- 
cess of doing will they commence to know and thus become. 

Conscience is the struggle of the understanding in assimi- 
lating experience; it is the effort of the individual to adjust 
precept with practice; or, in other words, Conscience is that 
living, active something, which acts as an incentive to do, thus 
helping the growth of the Soul and the increase of man's power 
to apprehend the truth and to apply it in every day life. Thus, 



*The Secret School, Order of the A.:. A.:, is devoting its every 
effort to teach its Neophyte this four-fold development and Alchemical 
Transmutation. Though generally unknown it upholds the Sacrednesi 
of religion and the family circle, loyalty to the Government and incul- 
cates faith and trust in medicine, law and order. 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 43 

while man is learning, if he also lives, he is actually growing 
or transmuting, and the process will be far advanced ere he is 
aware of any great growth made. 

In the Ancient Mysteries, Life presented itself to the can- 
didate, or Neophyte, as a problem to be solved, and not merely 
as certain propositions to be memorized and then forgotten. 
The solution of the problem constituted all genuine Initiation; 
and at every step or "degree" expanded. Therefore "Man, 
know thyself" was written above the door of every temple 
wherein were taught the Ancient Mysteries and Initia- 
tion accomplished. As the vision of the Neophyte enlarged in 
relation to the labors and meaning of life, his power of 
apprehension and assimilation also increased proportionately. 
This was likewise an evolution. The lower degrees of such 
Initiation concerned the ordinary affairs of life, namely, a 
knowledge of the laws and processes of external nature; the 
Neophyte's relation to these through his physical body; and his 
relations, on the physical plane, through his animal senses and 
social instincts, to his family and his fellow men. 

These things being learned through experience and develop- 
ment, not merely memorized, the Neophyte passes on to the next 
degree. Here he learns the nature of his Soul and the process 
of its development, and begins to unfold those finer instincts 
which have been so often referred to in books dealing with 
Initiation. If he is found capable of understanding these, and 
keeps his vow in the preceeding degrees, he presently dis- 
covers the evolution within him of senses and faculties pertain- 
ing to the "soul-plane." His progress would be instantly 
arrested, and his teachers refuse him all further instructions, 
if he were found negligent of the ordinary duties of life — those 
to his family, his neighbors, or his country. All these duties 
must be fully discharged before he can stand upon the thresh- 
old of the Greater Mysteries; because in these he becomes to be 
an unselfish servant to humanity as a whole; and there is no 



44 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

longer the right to bestow the gifts of knowledge or power that 
he possesses upon his own kinsmen or friends in preference to 
others who might more justly claim these through the law of 
greater necessity. In the higher degrees, he may even be pre- 
cluded from using his powers to preserve his own life or 
protect his own property; both the Initiate and his powers be- 
long to humanity. If the reader will but consider how those 
who crucified Jesus called upon him in mockery to "save him- 
self and to come down from the cross," if he were the Christ, 
it may be readily understood that this doctrine of Supreme Un- 
selfishness ought, long ago, to have been apprehended by the 
Christian world; for, while it is a Divine Attribute, the syno- 
nym of The Christ, it is latent in all humanity, and must be 
evolved in all if it is to be of service to a greater humanity, 
though it must not be understood for a moment that the Initiate 
gives to all alike, whether worthy or unworthy, because in giv- 
ing to the unworthy, or those who can help themselves, he would 
merely weaken them instead of strengthening them. Even 
to curse. 

That which seems to make such an evolution impossible, is 
that it cannot be conceived as being accomplishable in a single 
life; nor can it be. It is the result of persistent effort guided 
by High Ideals through many lives. Those who deny pre- 
existence may logically deny all such evolution. There must, 
however, come a time when the consummation is reached in one 
life; this may be in our present life; this is the logical meaning 
of the saying of Jesus — it is finished. 

Today, many of those who have not the honor to belong to 
any of the Secret Fraternities, know there were both an exo- 
teric and an esoteric doctrine with the early Christians; that the 
esoteric doctrines were communicated orally in the Mysteries of 
Initiation; and that these Mysteries conformed to, and were" 
originally derived from, those of the so-called Pagan world. 
The Mysteries of the Christ received a new interpretation after 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 45 



the first Nicene Council; and, as the Church sought dominion, 
it lost the Great Secret; since then it has denied that it ever 
existed, and has done all in its power to obliterate all its rec- 
ords and monuments. 

History, both sacred and profane, proves this. Tertullian, 
who died about A. D. 216, says in his Apology: "None are 
admitted to the religious Mysteries without an oath of Secrecy. 
We appeal to your Thracian and Eleusinian Mysteries; and we 
are specially bound to this caution, because if we prove faith- 
less, we should not only provoke Heaven, but draw upon our 
heads the utmost rigor of human displeasure."* 

Archelaus, Bishop of Cascara in Mesoptamia, the year 
278, said: "These mysteries the church now communicates to 
him who has passed through the introductory degree. These 
are not explained to the Gentiles at all, nor are they taught in 
the hearing of the Catechumens ; but much that is spoken is in 
disguised terms, that the Faithful, who possess the knowledge, 
may be still more informed, and those who are not acquainted 
with it may suffer no disadvantage." 

The Council of Nice had not taken the Secret Schools and 
Occult Fraternities into consideration, nor did they know much 
concerning them. The Council had knowledge such Schools 
and Orders existed but were under the mistaken impression 
they were cnly for ihe purpose of Pagan Initiations; had no 
knowledge of the fact that these Secret Schools and Orders 
possessed records to be handed down from Initiate to Initiate 



*Many students of the Mysteries have had the mistaken idea that 
the Masters or Initiates in the Secret Schools draw a curse upon those 
students who break their vow, having been led to this belief because 
si now, suffering and ultimate misfortune always follows such broken 
vows. Neither Master, Initiate or Teacher ever pronounces a curse; 
on the contrary, the student, through the law he himself sets in motion 
when he takes the vow, brings upon himself sorrow, misery, suffering 
and misfortune if he proves disloyal.. A vow is like a boomerang; if 
thrown straight will continue forward, but when misdirected will return 
and destroy the one responsible. 



46 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 



for all time to come; that the Keys to the Sacred Mysteries could 
never be lost to the Secret Schools and Occult Orders. 

St, Basil, the great Bishop of Caesarea, says: "We receive 
the dogmas transmitted to us by writing, and those which have 
descended to us from the Apostles and beneath the Mystery of 
Oral tradition; for several things have been handed to us with- 
out writing, lest the vulgar, too familiar with our dogmas, 
should lose a due respect for them. This is why the Unitiated 
are not permitted to contemplate; and how should it ever be 
proper to write and circulate among the people an account oi 
them." 

Those who composed the Council of Nice undoubtedly 
knew of the claims made by certain Priests of the day, that the 
Secret Mysteries were in possession of certain Secret School-., 
but considering these assertions as being voiced by madmen 
and fanatics, little or no attention was paid to them. 

This Sublime Philosophy, inclusive of the Sacred Mys- 
teries, once taught in the Greater Mysteries of Egypt, India, 
Chaldea, Asia and Persia, likewise among many other nations 
of antiquity, is known neither to modern churchianity nor to 
any of the exoteric orders any more than it was known to the 
Council of Nice. 

In the year 525, B. C. Cambyces, called "the mad," led 
an army into Egypt, overran the country, destroyed its cities, 
palaces and temples, scattered its Priest- Initiates (all Priests of 
the temple wcr. Initiates and instructors to the Neophytes), and 
reduced the country to a Persian province. Many of the priests 
took refuge in Greece, and conveyed thither the Egyptian Mys- 
teries, the same Mysteries Pythagoras had journeyed to Egypt 
to obtain half a century earlier." 

At th: beginning of the Christian era, the Mysteries were 
known only to the Initiates and Priests; the masses were in 
ignorance as to their very existence. There remained, at the 
Jtime, th: Essenian Order, as well as the Gnostics, the latter an 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 



inner circle of the Essenes. The Therapeutae of Alexandria 
was merely another name for a branch of the Essenian Frater- 
nity. Today the order of men then known as the Essenes i§ 
termed the Rosy Cross. There never has been the slightest 'n- 
terruption of this eecret Fraternity. It has many times changed 
its name since its foundation, but its instructions remain the 
same. Thus, from these Orders were derived the Christian 
Mysteries, preserved in the Secret Archives of the Great Schools, 
known only to In'tiates of the Higher degrees. 

The Neoplatonists, headed Ly Ammonius Saccus, under- 
took to preserve the primitive relation; and the utterances of the 
Christian Bishops, to which reference has been made, show how 
the Secret Doctrine was adopted from the earlier mysteries by 
the primitive Christians during the first three centuries of our 
era. After the first Council of Nice, A. D, 325, which was 
p-esided over by none others than exoteric or form Christians, 
looking for power and authority, little more was heard of the 
earlier doctrines; and, with the burning of the Great Library of 
Alexandria, Church supremacy end the dark ages obliterated 
the primitive wisdom of Western Europe, so far as the masses 
were concerned, as it was overrun by hordes of Barbarians from 
the North. The principal seats of learning were the convents 
rnd monasteries. Coming now to the dawn of the sixteenth 
century, and the great Protestant and Rosicrucian Reforma- 
tions, we find Johann Trithemius, Abbott of St. Jacob, at 
Wurtzburg, celebrated as one of the greatest Alchemists and' 
Adepts; Cornelius Agrippus, and Paracelsus were his pupils. 
We must not forget Christian Rosencreutz, the Refounder of 
the Rosicrucian Fraternity, which had previously been known 
as the Alchemists and Paracelsuians, and the powerful influ- 
ence his works had on the reformation of the time. John 
Reuchlin, a famous Kabalist of the time and Counted as one o r 
the most learned men of his da}' in Europe, was the friend and 
preceptor of Luther; and Luther's first public utterances were 



48 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

a course of lectures on the Philosophy of Aristotle. What effect 
the Rosicrucian Reformation had on Luther can only be judged 
from the fact that the private seal used by Luther was the Rose 
and the Cross, then a purely Rosicrucian symbol. Great effort 
was made to revive the Ancient Wisdom among those outside 
of the Secret Schools of the Fraternity; but the age was too 
gross and superstitious, and the reformation resulted in cen- 
turies of blind belief, likewise in the suppression of the Secret 
Doctrine as far as this could be accomplished. However, the 
Universal Reformation had accomplished one of its purposes: 
It had drawn to itself those who were truly ready to receive the 
Inner Training and the Mysteries of the Great Fraternity. 

The sincere student should always remember the impor- 
tant fact that in the Secret School there has always been, and 
ever will be, an exoteric portion given out to the world, to the 
uninitiated, and an Esoteric doctrine reserved for the Initiate; 
revealed by gradual degrees, according as the Neophyte demon- 
strates his fitness to receive, conceal and rightly use the knowl- 
edge imparted to him. 

The Great Schools, whether Rosicrucian, Magian or Se- 
lect Priesthood, recognize the whole world as one Republic, of 
which each Nation is a family, and every individual a child of 
the family. This relationship, not in any wise derogating from 
the differing duties which the diversity of states requires, tends 
to create a new people, which, composed of many nations and 
tongues, shall be bound together by the bonds of a true, Uni- 
versal Science, believe in the Equal Rights of all men to De- 
velopment, Advancement, Religious Freedom and Justice. 
Therefore, one of the real objects of these Orders, whether Mys- 
tic Masonry or any other Mystic or Occult Fraternity, may be 
summed up in the following: To efface from among men the 
prejudices of caste, the conventional distinctions of color, origin, 
opinion, nationality; to annihilate fanaticism and superstition, 
to extirpate national discord and with it to extinguish the fire- 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 49 

brand of war; in a word — to arrive, by free and pacific prog- 
ress, at one formula or model of universal right, according to 
which each individual human being shall be free to develop 
every faculty with which he may be endowed, and to concur 
heartily and with all the fulness of his strength in the bestow- 
ment of happiness upon all, and thus to make of the whole 
human race one family of brothers, united by Love, Wisdom 
and Science. 

That this may be accomplished, a true and constructive 
Philosophy must be taught; avarice as to possessions must be 
eliminated from the human heart through an understanding of 
law, having all come to comprehension that the desire for 
possessions which bring pleasure is legitimate, but that one 
should not covet the possessions of others though like posses- 
sions may be desired. True Science and Religion must be 
wedded ; and the key to both Science and Religion or Philosophy 
must be Love, one for the other. Such a Philosophy has always 
been the foundation of the Secret Schools and of the Rose Cross. 

The essential form or idea of all things; the potency or 
force; and matter as we now discern it, existed in primordical 
space. Therefore, these two always exist, namely, the inner 
potency, and the outer act; the concealed idea, and the outer 
form; the inner meaning and the outer event; each in turn a 
symbol of the other. Hence the saying on the Smaragdine Table 
of Hermes, "As Above, So Below." All outward things are 
therefore symbols, or embodiments of pre-existing Ideas, and 
out of this subjective Ideal realm all visible things have ema- 
nated. This doctrine of emanations is the key to the Philos- 
ophy of the Gnostic and Essene sects from which the early 
Christians derived their mysteries and whence the Secret Schools 
have their foundation. 

The fundamental doctrine of the Secret Schools may be 
briefly stated thus : There is a Grand Science generally known 
as Magic, because little understood by the masses, every 



50 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

real Initiate of any Order must be a Magus. Feared by the 
ignorant, and often ridiculed by the supposedly "learned" the 
Divine Science and its Masters have, nevertheless, existed in all 
ages, and do today as surely as the Fraternities in which 
they are the Masters. Occultism in its deeper meaning and rec- 
ondite mysteries constitutes and possesses this Science, and all 
genuine Initiation consists in an unfolding of the natural pow- 
ers of the Neophyte, so that he shall become that which he de- 
sires to possess. In seeking Magic, he finally becomes the 
Magus. All genuine Initiation is like evolution and regenera- 
tion from within. Devoid of this Inner meaning and power, all 
rituals and ceremonial Initiations are but foolish jargon and 
without meaning to the Initiated. That the Christ-life and 
power which made Jesus to be called Christos- Master, whereby 
he healed the sick, cast out devils, and foretold future events, 
is the same life revealed by Initiation in the Secret Schools, is 
perfectly plain. The disrepute into which the Mysteries have 
fallen has arisen from their abuse and degradation by those who 
broke their vows and proved false to the instructions they had 
received. 

Undoubtedly there are dangers met with in Symbolism and 
Mysticism, which afford an impressive lesson regarding simi- 
lar risks attendant on the use of any other secret force. The 
Imagination called in to assist the reason may usurp its place, 
or leaves its ally helplessly entangled in its web. Names which 
stand for things are confounded with them; the means are mis- 
taken for the end; the instrument of interpretation for the ob- 
ject; and thus symbols come to usurp an independent character 
as truths and persons, though perhaps a necessary path, they 
are dangerous ones to approach the Deity; in which many, says 
Plutarch, mistaking the sign for the thing signified, fell into a 
ridiculous superstition, while others, in avoiding one extreme, 
plunged into the no less hideous gulf of irreligion and impiety. 

It is through the Mysteries, said Cicero, that we have 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 51 

learned the first principles of life, wherefore the term "Initiation 
is used with good reason." 

The employment of Nature's Universal Symbolism instead 
of the technicalities of language, rewards the humblest inquirer 
and discloses its secrets to everyone in proportion to his prepara- 
tory training to comprehend them. If their philosophical signifi- 
cance was above the comprehension of some, their moral and 
political meaning are within the reach of all. 

In every age there have been dabblers in the mysteries as 
there are at the present time sorcerers and necromancers, who, 
possessing some few of the secrets, and imbued with none of 
its beneficence, have used this knowledge and power for purely 
personal and selfish ends, thereby ultimately destroying them- 
selves. Hypnotism is one illustration of the power referred to, 
mighty in its power for good, especially in the correction of 
destructive habits when employed by one morally clean, but 
vastly destructive in the hands of one without principle. Magic, 
per se, is always an absolute Science, and up to a certain point 
it may be cultivated without regard to its use and for the well- 
being of man; although any abuse of it will prove fatal to the 
magus sooner or later, and the black Magician, he who uses his 
forces for selfish purposes, will eventually destroy himself. 

The popular idea is that education consists in the cultiva- 
tion of the intellect. An average standard. of morals is always 
recommended by educators; and its outer form is illus- 
trated by religious ceremonies. But intellectual cultivation 
alone, no matter to what extent it may be carried — and the 
further it goes on in this one-sided way the worse for all con- 
cerned — is in no sense an evolution, as such one-sided education 
is the cause of our present day bigotism and intolerance of the 
opinions represented and expressed by the few who are always 
considered as unorthodox. Perfect intellectual development, 
without spiritual discernment and moral obligation, is the sign- 
manual of Satan: Intelligence, without goodness, lies athwart 
the Divine Plan in the evolution of Humanity. Intellect and 



52 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

Altruism by no means necessarily, go hand in hand. One may 
have a very clear intellect, have quick perception, and be a good 
reasoner, and yet be a consciousless scoundrel. On trie con- 
trary, one may be dull intellectually, and yet be kind, brotherly 
and sympathetic to the highest degree. A world made up of the 
former would be a bad place to live in ; of the latter, a thousand 
times to be preferred. Magic, in its true meaning, contemplates 
that all-around development of the entire man, which, liberat- 
ing the intellect from the dominion of the senses and illuminat- 
ing the Spiritual Perceptions, places the individual on the lines 
of least resistance with the Inflexible Laws of Nature, and the 
Magus becomes Nature's co-worker or hand-maid. To all such, 
Nature makes obeisance, and delegates her powers, and they 
become Masters. The real Master conceals his power and em- 
ploys it only for the gocd of others. He works "without the 
hope of reward," knowing that God is just. 

Believing that "Knowledge is Power," designing and evil 
minded men desire to possess both knowledge and power for 
entirely selfish purposes. It may be readily understood that 
the greater the possession of power a purely selfish man has, 
the more inimical to humanity he becomes. This is especially 
true in the case with the Deeper Sciences which deal with Men- 
tal forces, and which influence the thoughts and actions of 
others. Modem Science, purely materialistic in its aims and 
conclusions, has always ridiculed the idea embodied in Magic, 
for materialism can never recognize the Spiritual Forces. 

The traditional Lost Word of the Master is a key to all the 
Science of the Soul, term this Science Magic or what we will; 
but it must be remembered that the so-called Lost Word is not 
a Word, but refers to a Force, Power or Energy, resulting from 
careful training and Spiritual Development. The wisdom 
of the Initiate is not empirical; it does not consist of a few iso- 
lated formulas by which certain startling or unusual effects can 
be prcduced. Formulas have little to do with this knowledge. 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 53 

The Magus has found and knows his own sold, he has purified 
the heart so that it throbs with Love for humanity; and, through 
the re-awakening of Instinct and Intuition, he holds the key to 
many of Nature's Laws whereby he is enabled to accomplish his 
desires. He does not work contrary to Natural Laws, but in 
harmony with them. 

The Magi's art is therefore based on a Science far deeper 
and more exact than modern physical science has yet dreamed 
of, and back of it lies a Philosophy as boundless as the Uni- 
verse, as inexhaustible as Time, and as beneficent as the "Father 
in Heaven." 

Such Initiates have always existed; and no book or record 
worth preserving or in any way necessary for the good of man 
is ever lost. In the secret Crypts, alike inaccessible to the un- 
initiated man and to the corrosion of time and decay, these 
records are well preserved and can only be made use of by those 
who are truly prepared and are fit to make use of their teach- 
ings for the greatest good of the many. 

All human progress runs in cycles. Modern materialistic 
science has had its brief day and must gradually take its right- 
ful place. True philosophy has already undermined its foun- 
dation, the new age will show a genuine revival of philosophy 
and true science. 

The immortal principles enunciated by the Philosophers, 
clothed in modern garb of thought, less involved and dialectical, 
again commands the attention of the thinking world. Every 
one is aware that the source of the old Philosophers knowledge 
was the Mysteries; they were Initiates, and on almost even- 
page reveal the obligation they were under not to betray to the 
profane (the uninitiated) the secrets taught only to Initiates 
under the pledge of secrecy. 

"There is in Nature one most potent force, by means of 
which, a single person, who would possess himself of it, and 
know how to direct it, could revolutionize and change the whole 



54 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

face of the world. This force was known to the Ancients and 
the secret is possessed by the Secret Schools of the present day. 
It is a universal agent, whose supreme law is Equilibrium; and 
whereby, if science can but learn how to control it, will be 
possible to send a thought in an instant around the world; to 
heal or slay at a distance; to give our words universal success, 
and to make them reverberate everywhere." 

There is a Life Principle, a universal agent, wherein are 
two natures and a double current of love and wrath. This 
ambient fluid pervades everything. It is a ray detached from 
the glory of the Sun, and fixed by the weight of the atmosphere 
and the central attraction. It is the body of the Holy Spirit, 
the Universal Agent, the Serpent devouring its own tail, symbol 
at once of Continued Youth and Immortality of the Soul, plus 
Unlimited Power. 

With this electro-magnetic ether, this vital and luminous 
caloric, developable in everyone, the Ancients and the Alchem- 
ists* were familiar. Of this agent, that phase of modern igno- 
ance termed physical science, talks incoherently, knowing noth- 
ing of it save its effects; and theology might apply to it all its 
pretended definitions of spirit and still be unable to define it. 

Quiescent, it is appreciable by no human sense; disturbed, 
or in movement, none can explain its mode of action except the 
Initiate, and to term it a "fluid" and to speak of its "currents," 
is but to veil a profound mystery under a cloud of words. 

The Bible, with all the allegories it contains, expresses, 
in a veiled and incomplete manner only, the religious science of 
the Hebrews. The doctrines of Moses and the prophets, identi- 
cal at bottom with that of the ancient Egyptians, also had its 
outer meaning and its mysteries hidden behind a veil. The 
Hebrew books were written only to recall to memory the tradi- 
tions; and they were written in symbols unintelligible to the 



*See "Alchemy and the Alchemists." 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 55 

profane. The Pentateuch and the prophetic poems were merely 
elementary books of doctrines, morals or liturgy; and the true 
secret and traditional philosophy was only written afterwards, 
under a veil still less transparent. This was a second Bible 
born, unknown to, or rather uncomprehended by, the Christians 
of latter times, "a collection, they say, of monstrous absurdities; 
"a monument," the Initiates say, "wherein is to be found every- 
thing that the genius of Philosophy and of religion have ever 
formed or imagined of the Sublime; a treasure surrounded by 
thorns; a diamond concealed in a rough dark stone." 

The Kabalah, then, alone consecrates the alliance of the 
Universal Reason and Divine Word ; it establishes by the coun- 
terpoise of two forces apparently opposite the eternal balance of 
being; it alone reconciles Reason with Faith, and Power with 
Liberty, Science with Mystery; it has the keys of the Present, 
Past and the Future. One is filled with admiration on pene- 
trating into the Sanctuary of the Kabalah, at seeing a doctrine 
so logical, so simple, and at the same time so absolute. "The 
necessary union of ideas and signs, the consecration of the most 
fundamental realities by the primitive characters; the Trinity 
of Words, Letters and Numbers; a Philosophy simple as the 
alphabet; profound and infinite as the world; Theorems more 
complete and luminous than those of Pythagoras; a theology 
summed up by counting on one's fingers; an Infinite which can 
be held in the hollow of an infant's hand, ten ciphers and 
twenty-two letters, a triangle, a square and a circle — -these are 
all the elements of the Kabalah. These are the elementary prin- 
ciples of the written Word, reflection of that spoken Word which 
created the world." 

Life may be represented by a Triangle, at the apex of 
which is God. Of this triangle the two sides are formed by two 
streams, the one flowing outwards, the other upwards. The 
base may be taken to represent the material plane. Thus, from 
God proceed the Gods. From the Gods proceed all the Hier- 



56 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

archy of heaven, with the various orders from the highest to the 
lowest. Here again we have the Doctrine of Hermes. 

The Kabalah of the ancient Hebrews, which Moses de- 
rived by Initiation into the Mysteries of Egypt and Persia, 
was identical among the Hebrews, the Egyptians, the Hindus, 
and other nations of antiquity, and known as the Grand Science, 
or Secret Doctrine. 

Initiation is knowledge unfolded by degrees in an orderly, 
systematic process, step by step, as the capacity to apprehend 
grows and opens in the Neophyte. The result is not a posses- 
sion, but a growth, an evolution, plus development. Knowledge 
is not a mere sum in addition; something added to something 
that already exists; but rather such a progressive change or 
transformation of the original material man to make of him at 
every step a New Being. Real knowledge, or the growth of 
Wisdom in man, is an Eternal Becoming; a progressive trans- 
formation of the crude and material, into the likeness of the 
Supreme Goodness and Supreme Power. 

The Sacred books of all religions, including those of the 
Jews and the Christians, were and still remain, more than par- 
ables and allegories of the Secret Doctrines, transcribed for 
those who will live the life so as to comprehend the inner 
Mystery. All commentaries written on these Sacred books, 
whether on those of Moses, the Psalms and the Prophets of 
Judaism, the Gospels of the Gnostics and Christians, or those 
written on the Sacred books of the East — the Vedas, Pranas, and 
Upanishads — either make confusion more confounded when 
written by one ignorant of the Secret Doctrine or, when writ- 
ten by Initiates, but further elaborate the parables and alle- 
gories, plus applying them to ordinary life. 

It is easily demonstrable that the Secret Doctrine was the 
Primitive Wisdom Religion. Its earliest records are to be found 
in Asia, Egypt, and India, and thence have been carried to 
other countries. 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 57 

Underlying this Secret Doctrine is a profound philosophy 
of the creation or evolution of worlds and of man. The present 
humanity in many quarters of the globe has evolved on the 
intellectual plans so far that there now exists a very large num- 
ber of persons capable of apprehending this old philosophy, 
and, at the same time, capable of understanding the responsi- 
bility incurred in misusing or misinterpreting it. A large num- 
ber of people have reached, on the intellectual plane, the state 
of manhood, making them capable of partaking of the "fruit 
of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil." There is, there- 
fore, no reason why this old philosophy should be longer con- 
cealed. On the contrary, there are many reasons why it should 
be given to those who are ready to receive it. Empirical knowl- 
edge has advanced in certain directions into the realm of 
Psychism and the arts anciently designated by the term Magic; 
and it is imperative that the dangers which attend these pur- 
suits should be pointed out and demonstrated, whereby they may 
be avoided by the beneficient, and that the ignorant or innocent 
may be afforded protection. How far these modern inroads into 
Occultism or ancient Magic extended very few persons seem to 
realize. It is therefore high time that the Philosophy of the 
East should illumine the science of the West, and thus give the 
death blow to that intellectual diabolism and spiritual nihilism, 
known as materialism, on the one hand, and Spiritism, on the 
other, and this a comprehension of the Secret Doctrine only can 
accomplish. Grave responsibility, however, is incurred by such 
a revelation. Those who, like the professional Hypnotist and 
the Spiritist, have sinned, perhaps ignorantly, and thus have 
been unconsciously "Black Magicians," will eventually find no 
avenue from escape. 

As I am preparing the above, I receive a clipping entitled 
"The Mystic Side of the Bacillus Theory," published in one of 
the leading Medical Journals, the "Alkaloidal Clinic," and pre- 
pared by the master of both medicine and the Secret Science, 



58 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

James R. Phelps, M. D. Serum Therapy having become an 
accepted therapeutic agent in treatment of diseases, by repre- 
sentatives of the recognized Medical schools, I think it well to 
reproduce the article, because it will show we are reaching a 
plane of existence where true knowledge is demanded. 

"The man who has the temerity to question, or even dis- 
cuss in a questioning way, the generally accepted basic prin- 
ciples which underlie his profession, is apt to find himself set 
down a heretic, and invites the sneers and innuendoes, if not 
crucifixion, of those who accept the deductions of scientists, 
and deny the right of speech to anyone who dares to be wise 
above what is written. Not that it follows, by any means, that 
the heretic is necessarily right any more than it follows that the 
human scientist is always right. For science has a large rub- 
bish-heap in its back yard, on which may be found many a dis- 
carded plank that once formed part of its infallible platform. 

"A scientist once told me that a drop of nitric acid applied 
to a piece of freshly broken granite revealed, under the micro- 
scope, numerous living things similar to animalculae found in 
stagnant water. 'This,' he asserted, 'proves that the solid rock 
is full of life!' I fail to see that it proves any such thing. It 
simply shows that the action of the acid produced a form of 
motion there, and wherever there is motion there is a magnetic 
current, and forms having life spring into existence — not that 
they were any more in the rock than in the acid or that neces- 
sarily they were in either. 

"After all, is there not as much mystery about the mani- 
festation of life in matter as there is about thought action? 
Things become perceptible to us when they come within the 
range of the senses, but have they no form of existence before 
they come into this plane? Or do things spring from nothing? 

"It has become the fashion, when there is a diseased bodily 
condition, to go on a hunt for the bacillus which is one of the 
manifestations of that condition. I have nothing to say against 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 59 

this proceeding, but it is a mistake to allow this research to close 
up every other avenue of investigation, and to assume, offhand, 
that the bacillus is the creator of the disease, rather than its 
creation. And there are many of our profession who are think- 
ing along this same line. 

"If we read of the cures effected by the Divine Master 
(call him 'The Nazarene,' if you please, names are immaterial), 
we find His cures almost invariably prefixed by the words, 'Thy 
sins be forgiven thee;' and this declaration was always an 
offense to the pharasaical beholder. They could recognize the 
fact that a paralytic had been strangely healed, a leper cleansed, 
when the paralyzed man walked off with his bed on his back, or 
the hue of health came back to the pallid, ulcerated countenance 
of the leper; but the word of power that reached beyond their 
vision, and changed the mental condition that produced the 
disease, was too much for their comprehension. 

"Let me quote from a writer on mystical subjects : 'Disease 
does not enter in any manner from without. That which is ex- 
ternal simply awakens that which is already within us. Disease 
is not an entity — it is simply a depolarization. That sights and 
sounds lure the imagination into activity, I claim, and in this 
faculty of the mind depolarization of the spirit's action takes 
place, which causes a sudden condensation of spirit in some 
parts of the system, to the damage of other parts left destitute. 
Thus the system is all thrown out of harmony, because the nor- 
mal action of spirit is disturbed.' Polarize the system, establish 
equilibrium, and a cure quickly results.* 

"Now, belief being the fundamental principle of power, 
and man being more physical than mental, his belief is more 



*The basis of the doctrine on health and disease taught by the 
Secret Schools of today; also the reason for some of their wonderful 
cures without the use of drugs of serums, though it must not be under- 
stood these schools condemn the employment of medicine in the treat- 
ment of disease. Some of the most successful physicians in the world 
belong to these schools. 



60 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

readily aroused and sustained by physical substances than by 
ideas; hence, the Magi used charms, amulets and talismans to 
inspire the belief of the ignorant and material and, produced 
many cures. 

"Furthermore, who can doubt for a moment that drugs, 
metals, vegetable substances, etc., have a peculiar affinity for, 
or are antipathetic to, that department of the spiritual nature 
which we call the Imagination? 

"All action is dual — direct and reflex. If material sub- 
stances act on and create mental conditions — which I do not 
deny — then mental conditions act on and create material 
things** The impure, diseased imagination, finding in the 
physical organism soil suitable for the purpose, impregnates it 
and generates bacilli. To deny this hypothesis does not disprove 
it. The bacteriologist, with his microscope, discovers bacilli, 
and assumes that they are self-created or produced by material, 
chemical action on the physical atoms. This may answer as 
explanation of maggots in rotten cheese; but the house of an 
immortal thing, which we call soul or spirit, is something differ- 
ent. There is no motion of muscles, tendon or ligament that is 
not started first by mental aciion and will, through, not by, the 
brain. And there is not a bacillus or microbe infesting the 
blood or tissues, that did not have a definite, positive existence 
before it became manifested to the microscope; and if we under- 
stand the working of the mind as well as we do the anatomy of 
the body (and there are many facts regarding this even, that 
we are totally ignorant of), we might get more control over 
disease than we now seem to possess. And even with this influ- 
ence over the mind, what do we do when an epidemic of cholera 
breaks out? We set people to cleaning out their back yards, 
disposing of rubbish, and, more important still, we try to teach 



**Known in the Secret Schools as Image Formation, Visualization 
and Projection and taught as part of the Higher Mysteries. 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 61 



them to keep themselves clean, and this occupation tends to 
produce a (temporary, at least), condition of mental cleanli- 
ness. Washing the outside of cup and platter is something in 
the way of removing filth, and it is an accomplishment of some 
moment to teach some men the religion of a clean shirt. Mental 
uncleanliness is apt to generate bodily uncleanliness, and then 
the bacillus is a logical sequence. 

"There is much attention being directed of late to prophy- 
lactic treatment. Would it not be as well to extend this system 
a little farther, and see if it is not possible to pass over the bor- 
der a little way — cross the fence which science has erected be- 
tween the realm of matter and the realm of the imponderable, 
and see if, after all, there may not be something to be accom- 
plished in the way of regulation of disease before the enemy 
effects his invasion of the land? I believe we can meet with 
some measure of success, if we divest ourselves of some of out 
preconceived notions, and cease to take council of our denials, 
our limitations, our fears. It may be that there is something 
to be learned by looking at the bacillus theory from the Mystic 
standpoint. For, let the materialist doubt, and scout, and deny, 
as he will, there is that side of the question, and it is every day 
forcing itself more and more into recognition. 'There are more 
things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philos- 
ophy,' and there always will be." 

Here was one who did not fear to attempt to wed Science 
and Religion. Had we more of such teachers both Science and 
Religion would be the better for it and possibly shortly we 
would have an exact Science to deal with the physical ills of 
man. There can actually be no line drawn as to where material 
science ends and Spiritual Science begins, and because men 
have always attempted to do, confusion continually arises, 
which, blinding the Scientist on the one hand, and the Religion- 
ist on the other, results in chaos. 

They know little of the forces at work, or the principles 



62 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

involved, who imagine there is sufficient force in dissolving 
creeds, or in the dying throes of materialism, to greatly retard 
the progress of these truths by sneers or ridicule, or to prevent 
their triumph by any opposition that can be brought to bear 
against them. 

The Secret Doctrine was the universally diffused religion 
of the ancient world. Proof of its diffusion, authentic records 
of its history, a complete chain of documents, showing its char- 
acter and presence in every land, together with the teachings 
of all its great Initiates or Masters, exist to this day in the 
secret crypts of libraries belonging to the Secret Schools and 
Fraternities. 

The days of Constantine were the last turning point in his 
tory, the period of the supreme struggle that ended in the West- 
ern world; throttling the old religions in favor of the new ones, 
build on their bodies. Thence the vista into the far distant 
Past, beyond the "Deluge" and the "Garden of Eden," began 
to be forcibly and relentlessly closed by every fair and unfair 
means against the indiscreet gaze of posterity. Every issue was 
blocked up, every record that hands could be laid upon, de- 
stroyed. 

This same Constantine who, with his soldiers, environed 
the Bishops at the first Council of Nice, A. D. 325, and dic- 
tated terms to their deliberations applied for Initiation into the 
Mysteries, and was told by the officiating priest that no purga- 
tion could free him from the crime of putting his wife to death 
or from his many perjuries and murders. Every careful and 
unbiased student of history knows why the Secret Doctrine has 
been heard of so little since the days of Constantine. An exo- 
teric religion, antl belief in personal God blotted it out; and 
yet, the very Pentateuch conceals it, and for many students of 
the Kabalah, of the coming century, the seals will be broken. 

There are three fundamental propositions which underlie 
the Secret Doctrine; 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 63 



(1). "An omnipresent, Eternal, Boundless, and Immutable 
Principle on which all speculation is impossible, since it tran- 
scends the power of human conception, and could only be 
dwarfed by any human expression or similitude. It is beyond 
the range and reach of human thought — in the words of Man- 
dykya, "Unthinkable and unspeakable." This Infinite and 
Eternal Cause — dimly formulated in the "Unconscious" and 
"Unknowable" of current Philosophy — is the rootless root of 
"all that was, is, or ever shall be." In Sanskrit it is "Sat." 
This "Beness" is symbolized in the Secret Doctrine under two 
aspects. On the one hand, absolute abstract Space, representing 
bare subjectivity, the one thing which no human mind can 
either exclude from any conception or conceive of by itself. . 

On the other hand, absolute abstract Motion, representing 
"Unconditional Consciousness." Spirit (or Consciousness) and 
Matter are, however, to be regarded, not as independent reali- 
ties, but as the two facets or aspects of the Absolute, which con- 
stitutes the basis of conditional Being whether subjective or 
objective. "Considering this metaphysical triad" (the one 
reality, Spirit and Matter) "as the root from which proceeds all 
manifestation, the 'Great Breath' assumes the character of pre^ 
cosmic Ideation." 

(2). The second of the three postulates of the Secret Doc- 
trine is: "The eternity of the Universe in Toto as a boundless 
plane: periodically 'the playground of numberless Universes 
incessantly manifesting and disappearing,' called 'the manifest- 
ing stars' and the 'sparks of Eternity.' 'The Eternity of the 
Pilgrim' (the Monad or Self in man) is like a wink of the Eye 
of Self-Existence. 'The appearance and disapperance of worlds 
is like a regular ebb of flux and reflux." 

(3). "The fundamental identity of all Souls with the Uni- 
versal Over-Soul, the latter being itself an aspect of the Un- 
known Root; and the obligatory pilgrimage for every Soul — a 
Spark of the former — through the Cycle of Incarnation in ac- 



64 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

cordance with Cyclic and Karmic law, during the whole term." 
"The pivotal doctrine of the Eastern Philosophy admits no 
privileges or specific gifts to man, save those won by his own 
Soul by personal effort and merit though a long series of De- 
velopment and possibly many Incarnations." 

Souls are reincarnated many times; but not the person 
(which implies the body), for the body returns to the dust from 
whence it came. These things were taught by the Essenes, 
Gnostics, Therapeutae, and Jesus; and the doctrine is embodied 
in the parable of the Talents, as thus explained: Into the Soul 
of the individual is breathed the Spirit of God, divine, pure, 
and without blemish. It is part of God. And the individual 
has, in his earth-life, to nourish that Spirit and feed it as a 
Flame with oil. When you put oil into a lamp, the essence 
passes into and becomes flame. So is it with the spirit of him 
who nourishes the Soul. It grows gradually pure, and becomes 
the Soul. By this means the Soul becomes the richer. And, as 
in the parable of the Talents, where God has given five talents, 
man pays back ten; or he returns nothing, and perishes. 

When a soul has once become regenerate, it returns to the 
body only at its own free will, as a Redeemer or Messenger of 
Light to those not yet Regenerated. Such a one regains in the 
flesh the memory of the past. Regeneration or Transmutation 
may take place in an instant; but it is rarely a sudden transi- 
tion from the mortal to the Immortal; and it is best that it 
comes gradually, through normal growth, so that the "Mar- 
riage" of the Soul be only after a prolonged engagement. 

The doctrine of "Counterparts," so familiar to certain 
classes of Spiritualists, is a travesty, due to delusive spirits, on 
the "Marriage of Regeneration." Regeneration does not affect 
the interior man only. A Regenerate person may have his body 
such that no poison will cause death and that disease cannot 
gain foot hold. ("Zanoni," in Lytton's story, "drinking the 
poisoned wine.") 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 65 

At death, a portion of the spirit remains unconsumed — 
untransmuted, that is, unrefined. The spirit is fluid, and 
between it and vapor is this analogy. When there is a large 
quantity of vapor in a small place it becomes condensed, and is 
thick and gross. But when a portion is removed, the rest be- 
comes refined, and is rare and pure. So it is with the spirit. 
By the transmutation of a portion of its material the rest be- 
comes finer, rarer, and purer, and continues to do so more and 
more until — it has all returned to God. The Soul, after many 
incarnations, and by the help of the Spirit, returns to the Di- 
vine Soul, and becomes associated with God. 

Every Soul must work out its own salvation. Salvation by 
faith and the vicarious atonement were not taught, as now in- 
terpreted, by Jesus, nor are these doctrines taught in the esoteric 
Scriptures. They are later and false perversions of the original 
doctrines. In the early Church, as in the Secret Doctrine, there 
was not one Christ for the whole world, but a Potential Christ 
in every man. Theologians first made a fetish of the Imper- 
sonal, Omnipresent Divinity; and then tore Christos from the 
hearts of all humanity in order to deify Jesus, that they might 
have a God-man peculiarly their own! 

How much one's idea of God colors all his thoughts and 
deeds, is seldom realized. The ordinary crude and ignorant 
conception of a personal God more often results in slavish fear 
on the ene hand, and Atheism on the other. It is what Carlyle 
calls "an absentee God, doing nothing since the six days of 
creation, but sitting on the outside and seeing it go!" This idea 
of God carries with it, of course, the idea of creation, as some- 
thing already completed in time; when the fact is, that creation 
is a process without beginning or end. The world — all worlds 
— are being "created" today as much as at any period in the 
past. Even the apparent destruction of worlds is a creative, or 
evolutionary process. Emanating from the bosom of the All, 
and running their cyclic course; day alternating with night, on 



66 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

the outer physical plane, they are again indrawn to the invisible 
plane, only to re-emerge after a longer night and start again on 
a higher cycle of evolution. Theologians have tried in vain to 
attach the idea of immanance to that of personality, and ended 
in a jargon of words and utter confusion of ideas. A personal 
Absolute is not, except in potency. God does not think, but is 
the cause of Thought. God does not love, He is Love, in the 
perfect or absolute sense; and so with all the Divine Attributes. 
God is thus the concealed Logos, the "Causeless Cause." God 
never manifests Himself (to be seen of men, except by symbol- 
ism). Creation is His manifestation; and as creation is not 
complete, and never will be, and as it never had a beginning, 
as such, there is a concealed or unrevealed potency back of and 
beyond all creation, which is still God. 

All men are brothers by right of being born of woman and 
through the same first cause, and by all the laws of Nature and 
by the very being of God. But so long as religion defines 
Heresy as a crime, or imagines a God with human attributes, 
"man's inhumanity to man" will continue to make "countless 
millions mourn," and find vent for all evil passions justified by 
their idea of God. 

Christ is no less Divine because all men may reach the 
same Divine state of Perfection. It will be urged that "there 
is no other name given under heaven or amongst men whereby 
we can be saved." This is the Ineffable Name, which every 
Initiate is to possess through becoming, and salvation and per- 
fection are synonomous. Every act in the life of Jesus, and 
every quality assigned to the Christ, is to be found in the life 
of Krishna and in the legend of all the Sun- Gods from the 
remotest time, showing thereby that in the hearts of man has 
always been found an understanding of what Christ, or the 
Perfect Man, should be. 

One of the principle reasons the orthodox Churchman will 
find to oppose this view is not that it dethrones or degrades the 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 67 

Christ, but that it disproves the idea of the Christ as their ex- 
clusive possession, and denies that all other religions are less 
Divine than their own. The same selfishness is brought into 
religion that is indulged in regard to other possessions, such as 
wife and children, and other things highly valued; and the same 
partisan spirit that we find in politics (and this more than any- 
thing else appears to justify selfishness in general) militates 
against the institution of a reign of Justice to all men, and pre- 
vents the founding of a Great Republic composed of all nations 
of the earth with equal opportunities to all. This idea of a 
Brotherhood of Man was a cardinal doctrine in the Ancient 
Mysteries; because the Mysteries could not conceive of any 
favorite in the Divine Conception. Justice regards each indi- 
vidual of all the myriads constituting humanity with equal 
favor, granting to each one either the favor or the punishment 
earned. Justice of God toward all implies Justice toward each 
other among men. This principle of Justice is a Universal 
Law, and that such Justice may be meted out to all and the per- 
fectibility of man's nature through evolution accomplished, 
necessitates Reincarnation. 

The number of souls constituting humanity, though prac- 
tically innumerable, is, nevertheless, definite. Hence the doc- 
trine of pre-existence taught in all the Mysteries applied to 
"every child of woman born," all conditions in each life being 
determined by previous lives. Thus the Fatherhood of God in 
the personification of Divinity in Humanity includes the Uni- 
versal and Unqualified Justice which all men will receive sooner 
or later during their existence on the earth plane. No one can 
escape; the rich and favored sons of today, will be, under such 
an absolutely just law, the beggars of tomorrow. 

The real Initiates in all ages, knowing this from the les- 
sons taught in the Mysteries of Initiation, have ever been the 
foes of Autocrats, Oligarchies, Potentates, and Oppression in 
every form, whether ecclesiastical or political. Neophytes are 



68 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

taught to obey the laws of the country in which they live. If 
such laws are clearly unjust, then they are at perfect liberty to 
work for their rescinding or replacement by just laws. Initi- 
ates are not agents of Revolution, but of Evolution. By en- 
lightenment and persuasion they may strive to reform a nation 
or a church, but they do not attempt to overthrow either. The 
true, lasting Republic is the outgrowth of granting equal rights 
to all, and a jealous monarch in Church or State will naturally 
oppose the diffusion of doctrines that tend to the liberation and 
enlightenment of the people. 

Mysticism does not preach a new religion, there can be 
none, it only reiterates the New Commandment announced by 
Jesus, as the .mouthpiece of the New Dispensation of that Se- 
cret School — the Essenes in which he had been trained and to 
which he belonged. This same Commandment had been an- 
nounced by every great reformer of religion since the dawn of 
history. Drop the theological barnacles from the Religion 
taught by Jesus, and by the Essenes and Gnostics of the first 
centuries, and it is the true and eternal Mysticism of the Secret 
Schools. Mysticism, or Occultism, is not derived from the 
Ancient Religion, Secret Doctrine of the Kabalah, but is the 
Secret Doctrine. 

The old Hebrew Kabalah as part of the Great Universal 
Wisdom-Religion of Antiquity, stands squarely for the Equal 
Rights and Opportunities of all men, and this was actually per- 
sonified in the Essenian Order at the time Jesus lived. To 
Churchitize Mysticism, is an impossibility; it cannot be bound 
by Creeds; it is free, just as those must be free, even from self, 
who would belong to the Secret Schools. 

Dr. J. D. Buck, the universally respected Mystic Mason, 
wrote: "The thinnest veil over the Sublime Mystery of the 
Ineffable Name is Brotherhood and Love! The gross darkness 
that hangs like a black veil over the Shekinah is Selfishness and 
Hate. Even so hath it ever been; and so will it ever be till 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 69 

Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth reign universally in the 
hearts of all humanity. The refinements of so-called civiliza- 
tion do not change the essential nature of man. Beneath all 
these there sleeps or wakes a demon or an angel, and one of 
these is ever in chains, for no man can serve two masters." 

Had Dr. Buck lived a few years longer and witnessed the 
self sacrifice of the millions during the late war, and the profi- 
teering of others during this same time, both classes calling 
themselves Christians, his conclusions that demons still lived 
in some men would have been greatly strengthened. Possibly 
never in the history of the world, even when under clearly pagan 
rule, has so much selfishness been manifested by such a diver- 
sity of men in all classes as during these days of Reconstruc- 
tion, propoundedly manifesting to the student of history that 
churchanity has undoubtedly been a failure because it has for- 
gotten Christianity. 

The Science and Religion of the West are in perpetual 
conflict. The genius of this religion discerns Faith and Miracle 
as its foundation. Science holds as its ideal Fact and jpurely 
materialistic Law. Thus religion is necessarily illogical, while 
science is materialistic to the extreme; and, thanks to both, 
mankind is as far from real knowledge of the nature and des- 
tiny of the Soul as it was two thousand years ago. The conflict 
has long been maintained; it is a war to the death; both science 
and religion are gradually being reformed, and long before the 
battle ceases, neither of the original champions will be found to 
exist in their present form. 

The religion of the Secret Schools is vastly different and in 
harmony; Faith and Absolute Law are at the base, so-called 
miracles rest upon Law and Justice, for God cannot be unjust 
that He may perform a miracle. Science, as acknowledged by 
the Secret Schools, is founded on Logic, Law and Spirit as the 
Life of the material with which science deals. 

The western world laughs at this; for, looking at the Se- 



70 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

cret Doctrine and the mighty religions of India, Egypt, Greece, 
and Judea only from the outside, nothing but discord, super- 
stition, and chaos can be seen. But, if one examines the sym- 
bols, questions the Mysteries, and searches out the root-idea of 
the founders and of the prophets, harmony will be found 
throughout. Along divers and often # winding paths, one will 
always reach the same point, so that penetration into the Ar- 
canum of one of these religions means entrance into the secrets 
of the rest. Then a strange phenomenon takes place. By de- 
grees, but in a widening circle, the Doctrine of the Initiates is 
seen to shine forth in the Center of the religions, like a Sun 
clearing away its nebula. Each religion appears as a different 
planet. With each we change both atmosphere and celestial 
orientation, still it is always the same Sun which illumines 
us. India, the mighty dreamer, plunges us along with herself 
into the dream of eternity. Egypt, sublime and imposing, 
austere as death, invites us to the journey beyond the grave and 
shows us there is no death. Enchanting Greece sweeps us along 
to. the magic feasts of Life, and gives to her Mysteries the seduc- 
tion of her form, charming or terrible in turn, and of her ever- 
passionate Soul, that soul which was burned out of her through 
her practice of homo-sexuality, taught and practiced by the 
Priestess of hell — the poetess Sapho, a cult rapidly undermin- 
ing Western civilization. Finally Pythagoras scientifically for- 
mulated the Esoteric Doctrine, gives it the most nearly complete 
and concise expression it had ever had. From these, then will 
come the Science-Religion of the not far distant future. 

The western theory of religion is that of a Personal God 
and an arbitrary and equally mechanical, though miraculous, 
creation; of a Revelation equally miraculous; of souls created 
as by arbitrary caprice of Deity, with the accidental co-opera- 
tion of man, ever in violation of Divine Law. It talks of Laws, 
but admits their abrogation through the Will (caprice) of God. 
It is true that neither Science nor Religion has openly formu- 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 71 

lated the foregoing creeds but they are fair deductions from the 
postulates assumed, the logical results of a Nature without In- 
telligence; and a God who creates Laws only to annul them at 
his own good pleasure so he may perform a Miracle whereby to 
force His foolish children to both fear and believe in Him, 
neither of which they inwardly do, though outwardly act as if 
they did. Reconciliation between such a Science and such a 
Religion becomes impossible, because each is a contradiction of 
the other and to itself. Preaching Law, it yet teaches the Great 
Lawgiver can abrogate all Law. 

How vastly different this from the Doctrine taught by Or- 
pheus: "God is one and eternally unchangeable. He reigns 
over all. The Gods are diverse and innumerable, for Divinity 
is eternal and infinite. The greatest gods are the souls of the 
constellations. Each constellation has its own suns and stars, 
earths and moons, and all issue from the Celectial Fire of Zeus, 
from the Initial Light. Half-conscious, inaccessible, and un- 
changeable, they govern the mighty whole by their unvarying 
movements. Each revolving constellation draws along in its 
ethereal sphere phalanxes of demi-gods or radiant souls who 
were formerly human, and who, after descending the scale of 
kingdoms, have gloriously ascended the cycles, and finally issued 
from the round of generations. It is through these divine spirits 
that God breathes, acts, and manifests Himself; or, rather, 
these form the breath of His living soul, the rays of His eternal 
consciousness. They rule over armies of lower spirits which 
govern the elements; they control the universe. Far and near, 
they surround us, and, although of immortal essence, they as- 
sume ever-changing forms, according to nation, epoch, or region. 
The impious man who denies their existence still dreads them; 
the pious man worships without knowing them; the Initiate 
knows, attracts and sees them, I struggled to find them, braved 
death, and, as is said, descended into hell to tame the demons 
of the abyss, to summon the gods from on high to my beloved 



72 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

Greece, that lofty heaven might unite with earth, listening with 
delight to strains divine. Celestial beauty will become incarnate 
in the flesh of woman, the Fire of Zeus will run in the blood of 
heroes, and, long before mounting to the constellations, the sons 
of the Gods will shine forth like Immortals." 

There is nothing negative in the Secret Doctrine, nor in 
the Doctrines of Krishna, Orpheus, and the other Gods. All 
they taught was of a positive nature. It is only in the western 
interpretation of religion, which are ofttimes mere forgeries of 
the Eastern Doctrines that we find everything negative. A lie 
can never be positive, because the positive element is missing. 

Krishna, an Initiate as mighty as Orpheus, taught the doc- 
trine of the immortal soul, its rebirths and mystical union with 
God. The body, he taught, envelopes the soul, which makes 
therein its dwelling, and is a finished thing; but the indwelling 
soul is invisible, imponderable, incorruptible, eternal. "The 
earthly man is threefold (and four-square), like the Divinity 
of which he is the reflection; intelligence, soul, and body. If 
the soul is united with the intelligence it attains to Sattva — 
Wisdom and Peace; if it remains uncertain, between the intelli- 
gence and the body, it is dominated by Rajas — passion — and 
turns from object to object in a fatal circle; if it abandons itself 
to the body it falls into Tamos — want of reason, ignorance, and 
temporary death. This every man may observe in and about 
him. 

"The soul never escapes the law, but always obeys it. This 
is the Mystery of Rebirths. As the depths of heaven are laid 
bare before the starry rays, so the abyss of life light up be- 
neath theglory of this truth. When the body is dissolved, when 
Sattva is in the ascendant, the soul flies away into the region of 
those pure beings who have knowledge of the Sublime. When 
the body experiences this dissolution whilst Rajas dominates, 
the soul once more comes to live amongst those who have bound 
themselves to things on earth. Again, if the body is destroyed 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 73 

when Tamas dominates, the soul, whose radiance is dimmed by 
matter, is again attracted by the wombs of irrational beings. 

"The devout man, surprised by death, after enjoying for 
some time the due reward of his virtues in superior realms of 
peace, finally returns again to inhabit a body in some holy 
and respectable family. But this kind of regeneration in this 
life is very difficult to attain. The man thus born again finds 
himself possessed of the same degree of application and ad- 
vancement, as regards the intellect, as he had in his first body, 
and he begins to work fresh perfection through service and 
devotion. 

"The mighty and profound secret, the sublime and sover- 
eign mystery, is: To attain to perfection one must acquire the 
knowledge of unity, which is above wisdom; one must rise to 
the divine Being who is above the personal Soul, above the in- 
telligence. This divine Being, this sublime Friend is in each 
one of us. God dwells within each man, though few can find 
Him. This is the Path to salvation. Once thou hast perceived 
the perfect Being who is above the world and within thyself, do 
thou decide to abandon the enemy, which takes the form of 
desire. Control thy passions. The joys afforded by the senses 
are like wombs of future sufferings. Not only do good, but be 
good. Let the motive be in the action, not in its fruits. Abandon 
the fruits of thy works, but let each action be as an offering to 
the Supreme Being. The man who sacrifices his desire and 
works to the Being whence proceed the beginnings of all things, 
and by whom the universe has been formed, attains to perfec- 
tion by this sacrifice. One in spirit, he acquires that spiritual 
wisdom which is above the worship of offerings, and experiences 
a felicity divine. For he who within himself finds his happiness, 
his joy, his peace, and light, is one with God. Know then that 
the soul which has found God is freed from rebirth and death, 
old age and grief. Such a soul drinks the water of Immor- 
tality." 



74 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

Thus Krishna explained his doctrine, which was really the 
Secret Doctrine of the Ancients, given in language harmonizing 
with the age. By inner contemplation he gradually raised his 
disciples to the sublime truths which had been opened out to 
himself through his visions, the result of living the exalted life. 

The old universal Wisdom Religion or Secret Doctrine is 
scientific to the last degree; for beneath both Science and Re- 
ligion is the Philosophy which discerned the ordinary process 
of Eternal Nature, with no "missing links" in evolution, and no 
caprice or contradiction anywhere in Cosmos. This is the 
Science-Religion that is being implanted in the Western World 
by the Secret Schools and as it grows, so will the formal creeds 
and materialistic science be swept aside. 

The man reaching perfection is a Christ; and Christ is 
united to God. This is the birthright of every human Soul. It 
was taught in all the Greater Mysteries of Antiquity; but the 
exoteric creeds of Churchanity, derived from the parables and 
allegories in which this doctrine was concealed from the igno- 
rant and the profane, have accorded this Supreme Consumma- 
tion to Jesus alone, and made it obscure to all the rest of hu- 
manity. In place of this, the grandest doctrine ever revealed to 
man, theologians have set up Salvation by faith* in a man- 



* America is called a Christian Nation; all who do not belong to 
one of the established churches are frowned upon, but the Student in 
the Secret Schools cannot see the consistency, and why not? As there 
is before us a letter from a friend living in St. Joseph, Mo., which 
states in part: "There was much suffering in St. Joseph and fate 
visited all alike, slack two-thirds dirt was put up by dealers and people 
had to pay ten to fifteen dollars a ton. It was an outrage on humanity. 
Coal sold at ten dollars in one-fourth ton lots and half the time dealers 
would not deliver it for less than three to five dollars per quarter ton, 
many poor could not pay this on top of coal prices. All this on the 
tenth of December, bitter cold weather and the poor forced to meet the 
demands of robbers or freeze. 

All these dealers live in a church-going community, most of them, 
if not all, belong to some church, are known as Christians, yet in spite 
of all this, they are allowed to continue their robbery of the poor and 
needy and continue to belong to the church and be received as respected 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 75 

made creed, and the authority of the Church to "bind or lose on 
earth or in heaven.'' Law is annulled; Justice, dethroned; 
Merit, ignored; Effort, discouraged; and Sectarianism, Atheism, 
and Materialism are the result. How could it be otherwise 
when the millions of poor are at the mercy of the profiteers and 
unionized labor, and still have no greater assurance of gaining 
the "Kingdom of Heaven'' than those who systematically rob 
and degrade them? 

All real Initiation is an internal, not an external, or formal 
process. The outer ceremony is useful only so far as it sym- 
bolizes and illustrates, and thereby makes clear the inward 
change taking place. In many of the Fraternities, ceremonial 
Initiation is entirely dispensed with until after inner Initiation 
has been accomplished, as it often clouds the mind that would 
otherwise be clear. In true Initiation no ceremonies are neces- 
sary. To be initiated truly, means to be transformed; to be 
transformed is to have become regenerated ; and this results only 
by trial, by effort, by se£/-conquest, through sorrow, disappoint- 
ment, failure; and a daily renewal of the conflict. It is in this 
that man must "work out his own salvation." The consumma- 
tion of Initiation is Mastership according to the "degree" one 
has been able to overcome the finite, it is to have found the 
Christos; for these are the same. They are the goal, the perfect 
consummation, of human evolution through conscious develop- 
ment. 

By constant struggle and daily conflict the Initiate has 
conquered self. Life after life he has gathered experience. Truly 
hath he been a "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." He 



citizens. This, the student of the Secret Doctrine contends, is the result 
of the doctrines of "Salvation by Faith" and Vicarious Atonement." 

Such men could not for a moment continue in the Secret Schools, 
because they are guilty of the greatest crime man can commit, namely, 
Injustice to those too weak to defend themselves. The Secret Schools 
teach the Equal Rights to Justice and Fair-dealing to the weak as well 
as the strong. 



76 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

has assailed all problems; studied all science; exhausted all 
litanies; apprehended all philosophies; practiced all arts. At 
every step he has loved and helped humanity more and more, 
and sought his own benefit less and less. Grown familiar thus 
with all planes of life by sore trial, by bitter conflict, by fre- 
quent defeat, by hope deferred, almost despairing, he has at 
last mastered the selfish self, and so desiring nothing, every- 
thing comes to him. 

The Initiate of the highest degree — one who has power to 
command the elemental spirits, to create the elementals, can, 
through the same agency, heal the disorders and regenerate the 
functions of the body, often in himself and in many others. And 
this he does by an exercise of his will which sets in motion the 
AEtheric fluids. 

Such a person, an Initiate, or Hierarch, of the Secret 
Science, is, necessarily, a person of many incarnations. It was 
principally in the East that these were to be found, for it was 
there that the oldest souls were wont to congregate. It was in 
the East that human science first arose; and the soil and astral 
fluids were charged with power as a vast battery. The Hierarch 
of the Orient both was himself an older soul and had the mag- 
netic support of a chain of older souls, and the earth beneath 
his feet and the medium around him were charged with electric 
force to a degree not to be found elsewhere. It was for this rea- 
son that the East was far more enlightened than the West. This, 
alas, is no longer true because of the negativeness into which 
the peoples of the East allowed themselves to fall, and now men 
of the West are the Masters of the great East and the millions 
of souls in the East are gradually falling into the like sleep 
which overtook Egypt, Greece, Persia and other highly devel- 
oped civilizations of the past. 

How can man become such a Master according to the Doc- 
trine? The man who is without fear and without concupis- 
cence; who has courage to be absolutely poor and absolutely 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 77 

just and kind. Who is ready and willing to study, obey and 
live the life taught. When it is all one whether he has gold in 
his possession or has none, whether he owns the house and lands 
on which he lives or whether another does, whether he has world- 
ly reputation or whether he is an outcast, who is ready to defend 
the poor but just against power and injustice, such an one is 
ready for the Path. 

It is not wrong to have possessions, but it is -necessary to 
hold the attitude that all material things are merely for use in 
the climb to the Divine. It is not essential to be a virgin; it 
is important to set no value on flesh. There is nothing so diffi- 
cult to attain as this equilibrium — the Double Triangle, the 
White interlaced with the Black. When you have ceased to wish 
to retain or to burn, then you have the remedy in your hands, 
and it is a hard and a sharp one, and a terrible ordeal. Never- 
theless, be thou unafraid. Control the five senses, and above 
all, the taste and the touch. The power is within you if you 
will to attain it. Eat no dead thing which contained warm 
blood. Drink no fermented drinks, while you are under train- 
ing. Make living entities of all the elements of your body. 
Take your food full of life, and let not the touch of the de- 
natured pass your lips. Remember that without self-control 
there is no power over death. 

When a man has attained power over the body, the proc- 
ess of ordeal is no longer necessary. The Neophyte is uncler 
vow; the Initiate and Hierarch is free. Jesus, after his train- 
ing, came eating and drinking; for all things had become law- 
ful to him. He had undergone, while a Neophyte with the 
Essenes, and had freed the will and the desire. The object of 
the trial and the vow is polarization. When the fixed is volatil- 
ized, the Magian is free. Before Jesus was become the Christ 
he was subject; and his Initiation lasted thirty years. All 
things are lawful to the Hierarch; for he knows the nature and 
value of all. 



78 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

Through natural evolution man is continually climbing 
upward to higher planes; evolution fortified by Conscious de- 
velopment help him to reach the goal centuries or eons before 
natural evolution could possibly bring him to it. Through de- 
velopment his five senses are adjusted to observations and exper- 
iences of the physical plane; and he has spiritual experiences. 
The senses are narrow and circumscribed; yet even these be- 
come refined. His tastes alter, his tendencies ascend. He is 
reaching outward as his sympathies expand, and upward, as his 
ideals become higher. There is revealed to him a whole world 
of experience in which the lower senses play no part; a world of 
aspiration in which the selfish self is not the goal. The very 
physical bounds of this self are loosening, expanding, and dis- 
appearing. Hitherlo he has been conscious of flashes of intui- 
tion; of knowing things he has seemingly never learned. He 
feels inner meanings, and senses subtler powers. Not only in 
visions and intuitions of the day, but in dreams of the night he 
has experiences beyond the bounds of sense. He learns the 
power of Concentrated thought. By conquering self, his Will 
becomes strong; by subduing passion, his mind creatively power- 
ful. He has premonitions of coming events; for all events and 
thoughts and things exist first on the subjective plane, and are 
precipitated thence into matter. He may become clairaudient 
and clairvoyant. He has broken the bonds of self and begins 
to function on higher planes of being, thus coming into har- 
monious touch with the Divine. 

The problem of genuine Initiation, or training in the Se- 
cret Science, consists in placing all the operations of the body 
under the dominion of the Will until the Soul can begin tc 
function; in freeing the Ego from the dominion of the appe- 
tites, passions, and the w T hole lower nature. The idea is not to 
despise the body, but to purify and refine it; not to destroy the 
appetites, but to elevate and control them absolutely. This 
mastery of the lower nature does not change the key of the phy- 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 79 

sical nature as such, but subordinates it to that of a higher 
plane. Without this subordination, the clamorous lower nature 
drowns out all higher vibrations; as if in an orchestra, the 
bass-viols and the drums only could be heard ; and noise, rather 
than harmony, result. 

The first point to be made in real Initiation is for the 
Neophyte to control his thoughts. Instead of passively and 
helplessly receiving all suggestions that come from the physical 
sense, or appetites, or all that come from ambition, selfishness, 
and pride, he selects, and chooses, and wills what thoughts shall 
come. In this manner he acquires mastery over his own mind, 
and frees his will from the dominion of Desire; or rather, ele- 
vates and purifies his desires. 

In the Ancient Mysteries not every Initiate became a Mas- 
ter. There were the Lesser and the Greater Mystries. To the 
Lesser all were eligible; to the Greater, very few; and of these 
fewer still were ever exalted to the sublime and last degree. 
Some remained for a lifetime in the lower degrees unable to pro- 
gress further on account of constitutional defect or mental and 
spiritual incapacity; this is just as true at the present time. 
The Mysteries unfolded the building of worlds, the religion of 
Nature, the possibility of the Universal Brotherhood of Man, 
the Immortality of the Soul, and the natural evolution of human- 
ity. No ceremony was artificial or meaningless; no symbol, 
however grotesque to the ignorant, was merely fanciful. 

Thales and Pythagoras learned in the Sanctuaries of Egypt 
that the earth revolved around the Sun; but they did not attempt 
to make this generally known, because to do so would have been 
necessary to reveal one of the great Secrets of the Temple, the 
double law of attraction and radiation, or of sympathy and 
antipathy, or of fixedness and movement, which is the principle 
of creation and the perpetual cause of life. The truth was ridi- 
culed by Lactanius, and long after sought to be proved a false- 
hood by Papal Rome. 



80 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

The Ideal in Church and State, the motive for the Eccle- 
siastical and Political Hierarchies, has undoubtedly been in all 
ages to govern men professedly for their own good. The Secret 
Doctrine teaches man to govern himself first, then to work in 
harmony with all others for the Ideal Republic and Church. 
So long as Hierarchies subordinate all things to the real benefit 
of man, and give Light and Knowledge to all in such measure 
as they can receive, they are a blessing and not a curse. When, 
however, the Potentate suppresses Knowledge, claims power by 
Divine Right, cr by inheritance, rather than by proof of knowl- 
edge, apostolic succession, and by service done to man; when 
ignorance or disbelief is published as a crime and men torture 
the body, or agonize the mind under the devil's plea — "to save 
the soul" — then does the Hierarchy become an enemy of both 
God and man. Freedom and enlightenment are the only real 
Saviors of Mankind; while ignorance is the father of supersti- 
tion, and selfishness the parent of vice. 

The Ancient Mysteries were organized schools of learning, 
and knowledge was the signal of progress and the basis of Fel- 
lowship. The doors of real Initiation were open to women as 
to men; as they are at the present time. The Illuminati* and 
the Rose Cross both admit women to their training on equal 
basis with men, though it is regrettable, admission must be 
made that more women enter out of curiosity and repudiate their 
solemn vow, than is the case with men. 

The Ancient Wisdom concerned itself largely, as do the 
Secret Schools at present, with the Souls of men, and under- 
took to elevate the material life by purifying the Soul and exalt- 
ing its Ideals. It teaches that souls are sexless in themselves; 



^Reference to the school of the Illuminati is not to the German 
order, which admittedly was political, treasonable and atheistic ; believ- 
ing neitiier church, government, or the sacredness of marriage and the 
family. The Secret Schools absolutely had no connection in any 

shape or form with that Order, 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 81 

and that the sex of the body is a selection by the incarnating 
soul. No civilization known to man has ever risen to any great 
heights or long maintained its supremacy, that debased woman. 
The Secret Doctrine demonstrates with unmistakable clearness 
that sexual debasement in any form is the highway of degener- 
acy and destruction of both man and woman, of nations quite 
as certainly as of individuals — that it destroys both the body 
and soul of man. 

Ever since the time of Atlantis, the true Initiates and Mas- 
ters have been the keepers of the Great School. These Ini- 
tiates have taught the Secret Religions and true Science. The 
Ancient governments were Patriarchal*; the Ruler was always 
a Master Initiate, and the people were regarded by him as his 
children. In those days a reigning Prince did not consider it 
beneath his dignity to go into the desert alone, and there sit at 
the feet of some inspired recluse whereby he might receive 
"More Light," which he would dispense to those who were 
ready to receive such instructions. Instead of teaching super- 
stition and idolatry, when the real meaning of symbolism is 
revealed, it will be found to be the thinnest veil ever imposed 
between the sublime Wisdom and the comprehension of men. 
The old gods were the symbolical or personified attributes of 
Nature, through which man was taught to realize the 
existence of the Supreme Being. This was not polytheism, nor 
idolatry, but a system of training which could not be denned, and 
pointing to that which must forever remain unknown and 
unknowable, except by the aid of symbol, parable, and alle- 
gory. No word painting known to man seems half so beautiful 
as some of these ancient parables and allegories. Not only was 
every oblation to love and duty portrayed; every joy of 
home and affection illustrated, and the most common duties of 



*"Our Story of Atlantis" by Dr. Phelon, Secret School of Atlantis, 
Luxor and Elphante. 



82 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

life, feats of valor, devotion, and self-sacrifice depicted, but in 
a language so musical, and in rhythm and meter so perfect, as 
to make the whole recital more like a symphony than a poem. 
This symbolic writing is continued by us in the present day, in 
chemistry, medicine and other science. 

The parables were not invented to conceal the truth from 
those who could comprehend it, or to keep the people in igno- 
rance whereby the Priests and Rulers might preserve their 
power; for no Initiate cares fcr power except that he may do 
good to humanity; nor does he seek to control any people or 
office, the people seek the Initiate. "We seek no man, but men 
seek us." Power did not ccme through the people but by 
development and possession of the Mysteries, continually exer- 
cised and exemplified in all the works of the initiate, was the 
badge of office and sign of authority. To such a Priesthood the 
people rendered most willing obedience. The doors of Initiation 
were open, then as at present, to all who had evolved the capac- 
ity "to Know, to Dare, to Do, and to Keep Silent" in regard to 
that which should not be prematurely revealed. 

With the Light of the Great Lodge standing in the midst, 
the Peligion of the pe pie was a perfect representative of 
Science and Philosophy, in which superstition and idolatry 
found no place, hence the symmetry in all the old Wisdom- 
Religicns. There was originally but one Secret Doctrine; in 
later times, many nations had the same Philosophy; but each 
bad its own symbolism and method of expression. 

The religions of Egypt, Chaldea and Persia, had back of 
them the same Secret D:ctrine, the same Mysteries, formerly 
taught in the Great Ledge of Atlanti^; and it was from these 
they were transplanted to Egypt, India, Asia, and other coun- 
tries. This religion was both scientific and philosophical. 
Egypt and Chaldea repeated the folly of India, and perished, 
with the exception of a few Initiates who remained true. These 
few kept their vows and placed the Secret Doctrines in the 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 83 

Archives of the Temples; and taught those who became the 
future Masters, such as Hermes, Zoroaster, Confucius, and 
others who thereafter taught the Secret Doctrines to a selected 
few and revived the old religion under new names and forms 
harmonizing with the customs and forms of their respective 
countries. Pythagoras and the Schools of the Persian^ Magi*, 
as well as the Ansaireth of Syria where Dr. P. B. Randolph 
was trained and taught, keeping the true light burning; always 
to be found By those iruly seeking. 

The conquest of Egypt by Cambyses completed the ruins of 
the land of the Pharoahs; and Pythagoras became the link be- 
tween the old philosophy and the Christian Mysteries, together 
with the Jewish Kabalah, derived jointly from the Mysteries of 
Egypt and Syria. 

From the Essenes and the schools of Alexandria, then in 
their glory, and from the Kabalah, the Christian Mysteries were 
derived. In fact, the Christian Mysteries were none other than 
the Ancient Mysteries and Secret Doctrine, changed, it is true, 
to meet with ideas, customs and laws of the time. During the 
first three centuries after the time of Jesus these doctrines flour- 
ished openly but were finally forced to be taught secretly and a 
selected few through the conquest of Constantine, followed by 
the dark ages. 

The religion of Jesus was that of the Ancient Mysteries; 
it was the same Wisdom-Religion, though perhaps the ethical 
features were more pronounced, as necessitated among what was 
termed ' : a generation of vipers/ ' The ethical teachings of Jesus 
in time gave place to pritescraft and sacredotalism; to worldly 
power and thirst for conquest; and the religion, or rather, cere- 
monialism of Constantine was finally succeeded by the "Holy- 
Inquisition, " a reign of torture and bloodshed. 



*The "Venerable Order of the Magi," coming clown the ages from 
the time before Jesus, through direct Apostolic descension, exists today 
and teaches the same age old Secret Doctrines. 



84 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

During this reign of terror, the Secret Schools were sup- 
pressed with an iron hand, though in spite of all the Inquisition 
could do, the schools nourished and never wanted for candi- 
dates. As the "Holy Inquisition" gradually lost force, pretend- 
ers to Occult and Mystic powers arose and these charlatans did 
untold harm to the Secret Doctrine. 

There are many names in history covered with obloquy, and 
their possessors charged with fraud and imposition, who were 
genuine Initiates. The seeker should distinguish between self- 
conviction that comes from the pretender's own mouth and those 
accusations which come from others and are unsupported by evi- 
dence. As a fact, the true Master, or Initiate, never, under any 
circumstances, makes the claim that he is such. The man or the 
woman who openly claims to be either an initiate, an adept, or a 
master, is never what he claims to be, but merely a pretender. 
The pretender is usually loaded with honors and found rolling in 
wealth, as the regard of his deceit and lying, of fraud and cor- 
ruption, which he is shrewd enough to conceal from the masses 
but is apparent to the Initiate or the Master. Man betrays his 
character, his heredity, his ideas, and all his past life in every 
lineament of his face, in the pose of his body, in his gait, in the 
lines of his hands, in the tone of his voice, and in the expression 
of his eyes especially. No man possesses character. Character 
is that which he is and not something apart from himself. One 
need not be a Master to discover all this; he need only ob- 
serve, think, and reason on what he sees. The individual 
who is really sincere and devout will not fail to recognize sin- 
cerity and true devotion in an acquaintance or in any character 
in history that possessed these virtues. Hence the faithful stu- 
dent of the Secret Science, though not himself an Initiate, soon 
learns to recognize by unfailing signs those in the present or 
the past who were really Initiates and who had understanding 
of the Wisdom Religion. 

The teal Initiate is often gibbeted by the populace and 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 85 

anathematized by the church, because he is neither time-serving 
nor willing to barter the truth for gold. 

All along the line of history, from the foundation of Atlan- 
tis to the present time, may be found those who possessed the 
true light. Initiates who concealed both their wisdom and their 
own identity from vulgar notice and foolish praise ; they walked 
the earth in the past, as many do at present, unseen and un- 
recognized by the multitude, but always known to their associ- 
ates and to all real seekers. 

These Initiates, or Masters, constitute in every age, as they 
do at the present time, the Great School. They are the Masters 
of the Fraternities known as the Rose Cross, the Magi and the 
Illuminati. For be it known to all those who would find the 
Light, to all who would trod the Path, these Secret Schools exist 
today as they did in the past; and initiates are to be found in 
them in greater number today than since the time of the fall of 
Egypt the Glorious. Whether these Initiates congregate beneath 
vaulted domes, or meet at stated times, no one would be likely 
to know unless he belongs to the same degree as those called ; but 
one thing is certain; they help to bring knowledge to humanity 
when most needed and often shape the destinies of nations. 
They are working today in the West as they have never labored 
before. They are enabled to give their services to many because 
the way has been prepared for them by "those who know;" and 
the present century will yet know more of them. 



MISCONCEPTIONS 

A destructive misconception so often met with in those who 
are apparently following the Path to a Higher Evolution, leading 
them to believe, often to teach, that in order to follow the Illum- 
inating Life one must ignore the body and its physical powers; 
the family and its necessities ; the sex and its demands, is totally 
devoid of any foundation in fact. The Secret Schools teach that 
man must "render unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar", 
neglecting none of the four divisions of his being, giving equal 
attention to each department of his nature, at the same time in- 
culcating the positive doctrine that the man allowing anything to 
interfere with his search for the ultimate of Conscious Individu- 
ality (the Holy Grail) is a weakling and a disgrace to his 
Creator. 



The Philosophy of Fire 

The Philosophy of Fire underlies all True Initiation as 
well as the Secret Doctrine and the Ancient Mysteries; it is like- 
wise the foundation upon which rest all Mystic and Occult Fra- 
ternities. 

Of all the Secret Orders of the present day, probably more 
is known of the Grand Fraternity of the Rose Cross* than ol 
any other of the Secret Schools. This is not because the Frater- 
nity itself has given extensively of its teachings to the profane 
world, but rather through the voluminous writings of such of its 
members as Hargrave Jennings, Paschal Beverly Randolph, 
Lord Belwer Lytton, Honore de Balsac, Freeman B. Dowd, and 
others. 

In a Manifesto published during the year 1871, by the 
then Supreme Master of the Trple Order — P. B. Randolph, 
M.D., it is freely admitted the foundation of the teachings of 
the Fraternity is the Philosophy of Fire. 

"It is urged against us that we 'believe in, and practice, 
Magic;' we admit the fact: we certainly do, — the pure white, 
oright, effulgent, radiantly glorious Magic of the Human 
Will,** — through and by which alone, human passions are made 
to correct themselves, and by wine, alone, otherwise defenseless 
woman is fully armed against the coarse brutal 'ty of thousands 
of misnamed "men and husbands; 1 ' and this is a purely Christie 



*Thc Grand Fraternity is composed of the Triple Order: The 
"Rose Cross Order," the "Temple of the Rosy Cross," and the "Hier- 
archy of Eulis." 

**The "Occult Arcanum" of the Secret Schools. 



88 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

power too, an integrant of the early Christie faith — dead here, 
and buried nearly everywhere else, beneath mountains of gab- 
ble-dust and deserts of error. It is further charged that we have 
"certain quite extra-ordinary Esoteric, or Secret Dactrines." 
We admit the fact, and the animus is apparent from that other 
fact, namely, "that these Secret Doctrines are only divulged to 
the pure, virtuous, and worthy." Our assailants failed in all 
their schemes to penetrate these Mysteries, and the inference is 
plain, nor can even the disaffectd fail to see "the reason why." 
Now, however, we herewith present some of these "Secret Doc- 
trines." 

"We teach that Deity dwells within the Cryptic portals ol 
the luminous worlds, and that the lamp that lights it is — supreme 
Love. 

"We assert that no power ever comes to man through the 
intellect, that goodness alone is Power, and that that pertains to 
the Heart only, hence that Power comes to the Soul only through 
Love (not lust, mind you, but Love), the underlying, Phimal 
Fire-Life, sub-tending the bases of Being — the formative flowing 
floor of the world — the true sensing of which is the beginning of 
the road to personal power. Love lieth at the foundation, and is 
the synonym of Life and Strength and Clingingness. 

"Holding, as we do, that Deity dwells within the Shadow, 
behind the everlasting Flame, the amazing glories of which 
minds have confounded with the very God, we declare all things, 
especially the human Soul, to be a form of Fire; that man is not 
the only intelligence in nature, but that there are, and the aerial 
spaces abound with, multiform intelligences, having their con- 
scious origin in Aeth*, as man has his in matter; and that there 
are grades of these, towering away in infinite series of Hierar- 
chies, human and ultra-human, to an unimaginable Eterne. We 
inculcate the doctrine that the Soul is a polar world of White 



* Fundamental Teachings of the AEth Priesthood. 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 89 

Fire within the human body; that its negative pole resides with- 
in the brain as a general dwelling; that in dreamless sleep it goes 
to the solar plexus (Abdominal Brain) to impart stores of Life- 
fire to the body; in dream it visits (by sight and rapport) other 
scenery, and that all dreams have a determinate meaning and 
purpose — even though they may merely indicate indigestion or 
the eating of improper food which will produce disease in the 
system. 

"We maintain that the other pole of the Soul is situated 
within the genital system (Pelvic Brain). That the superior 
pole of the soul is in direct magnetic and ethereal contact with 
the Soul of Being; the foundation-Fire of the Universe; with 
all that vast domain underlying increase, growth, emotion, 
beauty, power, heat, energy; the sole and base of being, the 
subtending Live, or Fire-floor of Existence. Hence through 
Love man seizes directly on all that is, and can come into actual 
contact and rapport with every being that feels and loves and 
dwells within the confines of God's habitable universe. 

"Declaring that true manhood is more or less en rapport 
with one or more of the Upper Hierarchies of Intelligent Poten- 
tialities, earth-born and not earth-born, we believe and teach 
there are means whereby a person may become associated with, 
and receive instruction from, them. More than that, we believe 
in talismans; that it is possible to construct and wear them, and 
that they emit a peculiar light, discernable across the gulfs of 
space by these intelligent powers, just as we discern a diamond 
across a playhouse; that such signal to the beholders, and that 
they will, and do, cross the chasmal steeps to save, succor, and 
assist the wearer, just as a good brother here flies to the relief of 
him who shall give the grand hailing-signs of distress. 

"God, the Soul of the Universe, is positive heat, celestial 
fire; the Aura of Deity (God-od) is Love, the prime element of 
all Power, the external Fire — sphere, the informing and forma- 
tive pulse of matter. The induction is crystalline; for it follows 



90 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

that whoso hath most love — whether its expression be coarse or 
fine, cultured or rude — hath, therefore, most of God in him or 
her; the element of time being competent to the perfection of all 
refining influences over the ocean, if not upon the hither side." 

Another Rosicrucian wrote: "Justice is so late of arrival to 
all original thinkers — the terms of prejudice, and of astonish- 
ment (not in the good sense), are so long in falling off from 
profound researches — that even now, the Rosicrusians — in other 
words, the Paracelsians or Magnetists — are totally ignored as 
the arch-chemists, the experimenters in Fire, to whose deep 
thoughts, and unrelaxing labors, modern science is indebted for 
most of its truths. 

"As astrology (not the jugglers of the stars, but the true 
explorers, seeking the method of being, and of working, of the 
glittering habitants of space) : was the mother of astronomy, so 
is the lore of the Hermetic Brethren — the groundwork of all 
present philosophy. On its applied side, Rosicrucianism is the 
science which is so familiar and s*o valuable. But as the Her- 
metic (Rosicrucian) beliefs are a great religion, they, of course, 
have their popular adaptations; and, in consequence, there is a 
mythology to them. There must always be a machinery (sym- 
bolism) to every faith, through which it may be known; and 
the mistake of people is in accepting the childish machinery and 
colored mythology of a religion for the religion itself. 

"Mystical, fantastical, and transcendental — nay, impossi- 
ble, as the studies and objects of the Rosicrucians seem to be in 
these modern, ultra-practical days, it is forgotten that the truths 
of contemporaneous science are all based on the dreams of the 
old thinkers. Out of natural philosophy, the occult brethren 
sought the spirit of natural philosophy, and to this inner heaven 
— so unlike ordinary life — through purification of the self, 
through invocations*, through humbling and prayers, through 



^Invocation development belongs peculiarly to the Magi system of 
Soul growth. 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 91 

penances to change the desires of the body for worldly things, 
through fumigations and incensing to raise up another world 
about them, and to place themselves en rapport with the inhabi- 
tants of it, through the purifying of the senses, and thereby to 
the opening of the finer senses — to the shutting-out of one state, 
in order to make possible the passing into another state — to all 
this the Rosicrucian sought to reach.'" 

The Hermetic Doctrine is merely a part of the Universal 
Rosicrucian system, a branch of the Grand Fraternity. Their 
teachings concerning Fire are identical with the Rosicrucian 
Doctrines: "Fire is at once the great purifier and separator of 
elements. It is hell for the evil, but on the pure spirit it works 
no injury. For pure Soul is also the soul of the Fire. The 
whole world must be purified by this fire — the intensity of true 
Love for the new dispensation. When we recall the fact that 
Fire is also the Basis of life, we will understand what love really 
is, and may do for us and the whole human family. 

"Like all other things he touches, the undeveloped man has 
constantly acted to draw down to his plane of being everything 
belonging to the higher conception of sex, which is itself a form 
of fire. He forgets it is the direct emanation of the Divine Crea- 
tive Thought. All the highest, purest, and sweetest thoughts 
lead up to the manifestation of the sex condition and sex forces, 
as the Alpha and the Omega, at once the beginning and the end, 
of both desire and fulfillment. It holds within itself the whole 
Divine statement of Being: "and God said, Let there be and 
there was." Life and death are in it; the out-pouring and 
the in-drawing.'' 

All the great lessons of living and acting are held in the 
three-lettered word of unperfected activity. The Law of Love — 
God expression in man — holds its basis of manifestation on the 
health activity of the sex function — the basis wherein dwells the 
physical fire. The beginning and the end of life, if we so will 
it, is held here. The moment of conclusion is the beginning of 



92 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

a new life. It is also the moment of death — the dead point at 
which the whole organism enters into the realms of dissolution, 
as it is ever striving to do. But the great sex-force and body of 
life carries always forward and beyond, so there shall be no 
dwelling within the House of Death. 

"It is in this 'House of the Fire of Life' wherein is mani- 
fested the completion of the Divine plan. It is here the Was 
becomes the Is, and this Is-Is passes into the Shall be. It is 
through this differentiation, that the great trinity manifests itself 
unto itself. Verily, the kingdom of Heaven — the Power of God 
— lies within us, for the Transmission of Life. His knowledge 
of its origin is the point at which His Supremacy assumes for 
itself unquestioned authority — the Omnipotence of the One only 
Unity. Love, Sex, and Fire are one. The Three in One.* 

In Sweden, on the first of May, the opening or germination 
of the year, the peasantry, as they do all over the North at 
certain times, light fires. A candle is lighted by all devout 
Catholics on Christmas Eve, and is kept burning, in memory 
and as a reminder of the mysterious Incarnation, until the 
dawning of the real day of the Blessed Nativity. The Yule- 
Log, whose bright blazing is of so much moment that with the 
last brand of it, most carefully and superstitiously laid aside for 
the purpose, the next year's Christmas Fire is to be lighted, fol- 
lows the same rule. The Christmas Tree, the origin of which 
is lost in the mists of tradition, and which Teutonic emblem 
(time out of mind employed in Germany) was transposed into 
England, though without the slightest suspicion of its Pagan 
meaning; is the Mystic Northern sacrifice; and the attestation, 
in its multitudinous blazing candles, to the Genius, or the God, 
of the Fire. The toys representing all the things of man and of 
the earth, which are suspended among the boughs in its mystic 
light, are the sacrifices of all good things of the world, and all 



*See "Divine Alchemy." 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 93 

the products of the Creative Fiat, as in surrender and acknowl- 
edgement, back to the Unknown Living Spirit, or Immortal Pro- 
ducer, who hath chosen Fire as His symbol and His shadow. 

"If the reader will refer to the crest of His Royal Highness, 
Prince Albert, he will find the mystic, magic horns distinctly 
set up. The reproduction of the ever-recurring symbol which 
is recognizable as horns, wings, or otherwise in the head-pieces 
of his ancestors of the North. The rough Rustic Soldiers who, 
in their barbarian incursions, overturned (in the Roman be- 
liefs), and buried in the ruins of the Empire, a faith identical, in 
its secrets, with their own, All-ignorant of the fact that the 
symbols of both spoke but the same tale, the original, Soular, 
Fire Faith. 

"The laurel-wreath around the head of heroes and Empor- 
ers, accorded only to the great conquerors, the Imperator, or the 
poet (majestic Triplicate!), not only mark out the line, and 
denote the place of the organs of the highest intellectual and 
god-like faculties in the brows of the human being, but prove 
the knowledge of the ancients of phrenology, and represent the 
original starry radius — that which symbolically invests the head 
of all the Gods. It speaks the Spirit Flame radius — magnetic 
and supernatural — intensifying to its real magico-generative 
power in a circle of intolerable light, about the head; in which 
Mystic Light all magic and sorcery, as well as all Sainthood, 
was supposed, by the Rosicrucians, to be possible, in accord- 
ance with the laws of the super-natural Fire-World. Crowns, 
garlands, wreaths, all the insignia of dignity that encircle the 
head; and all passing, be it remarked, over the psysico-phre- 
nological places of the faculties of "causality, comparison, won- 
der, and imagination," and in tracing them along, disclosing and 
glorifying all the bodily points of the means of the greatness of 
man — mitres and priestly head coverings, the tonsure of the 
sacredotes, freeing the sacred circle of the intellect (within 
which may the terrifically grand, very apprehension of God 



9 1 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

Himself be realized); from the barbarian and the degraded-— 
nay, brute-like giowth of hair, the very investiture and most 
closely branding confession, and the complete and irresistible 
conviction of the beasts — most abundant, and the grossest, there 
were, in the scale, lowest; — sceptres, wands, priestly staves or 
crosiers, batons and maces: — all these marks of rank, with the 
original disk, orb, mound, surmounting, with the mystic symbol 
of the Cross, the royal reds or sceptres of the European mon- 
archs:— All these forms are but the changes and reproduction 
of the rod of the Magician. He whose creed was the Fire-faith, 
and whose secret means of working upon nature was the mys- 
terious ''Sorcerer's Sign," displayed upon, and through which 
stretched — he declared — the "images" of worlds, and converse 
with the real Sub-strata of which, he pronounced, was by spells, 
as spirit-visages were only to be won to the sight, or through en- 
chantments. 

It has already been indicated that both Krishna and 
Orpheus taught the Christian Mysteries. Buddha, another 
founder of religion, also taught these Mysteries and Secret Doc- 
trines but in their negative form. 

"The subject of Buddhism is the obscurest in the whole 
round of learned inquisition," says Hargrave Jennings: "This 
old, and beyond all measure, broadest and sublimest of all the 
religions of the East — this ancient and really philosophical be- 
lief — demands a capacity to grasp abstractions before its prin- 
ciples can be understood. Men who argue from effect to cause — 
men who rpp ehend cause as all — that is, cause as gathered 
from an experience derivable from being — cannot but fail in at- 
taining to the disclosure of it. Materialism is a constant charge 
urged upon the Buddhist. In cne sense, materialism is cor- 
rectly assured of him. For Buddhism denounces all being, apart 
from form, as impossible. It is the purest Spinozism. It is 
identical with it. 

"Accepted with the literal eye, the tenets of thf Indian 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 91 



theology, in reference to its Buddhist groundwork, appear to 
present the usual average of mythological fabling. But we 
judge upon the means of expression, not upon the thing ex- 
pressed. That, in the very terms of expression, has escaped. As 
the reconcilement of that which 'knows no sense,' with appre- 
hension through the means of sense alone, must always be im- 
possible. Man's very being — that is, the laws by which he is, 
of his mind — shut him up, as it w r ere, within themselves (or 
itself), as in a prison. And all his knowledge of things comes 
from that Light shining within his prison — his mind. Within 
that radius, the Light is perfect and he himself perfect. But 
what guesses he, or can he know, of the great Light without? 
That light, to him, may be no light. Light is material. Being, 
itself, only necessary to matter, and the life of it, or the soul oi 
the world, 

"This was the faith taught by those Persians who believed 
in the one Universal groundwork of light — the soul, or ultimate 
principle of everything to be known — which is the religion of the 
Magi, of Zoroaster, of the Guebres, of the modern Indian Parsees 
as of the middle age European Bohemians ; the remains of whose 
Fire-Palaces, or Fire-Temples, are yet to be seen, crumbling, 
indeed, into their own god, light, around the reverend and time- 
battered, as well as war-battered, Prague. 

"Man is the center to himself in his light of mind, shining 
as in his castle and prison of body. The forceful outer day — 
the god of the universal circle of things — once, in its violent in- 
qu- st, fixed, cranny and penetrating, would annihilate the tem- 
porary possessor of the tenement, and absorb all within (that is, 
him), to itself — laws to light; organism to broad being, until, 
reincorporate; that is, concrete. 

"The whole round world is as a microcosm, whose wonders 
are exhaustless; whose beauties are beyond expression; whose 
changes, whose decay, whose rcommitment into new forms is as 
the ceaseless revolvment of the Inexpressible Glory. Through 



96 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

the sea floors and their multitudinous mimic continents, fruitful 
of moving life, fecund with their three-growths and their semi- 
Sylvan, semi-oceanic vegetation; through the clouds of the seas 
that rest or roll over them, through which speed the winged ships 
as golden (sunlighted) 1 specks; through the hollow-crusted 
earth and its rigid rocks — -earth-torn and battered like a battle 
beaten man of Eternal War, as it circles its resounding way 
amidst the roads of the lighted stars, 'baring' to the changing 
Sun, and to the cold, renewing moon, its ploughed side, globing 
Up, still defiant, with the wounds of the contentions of the cen- 
turies and with the retardation of the space-forces'; — through 
the 'built-work' of Nature, in short, runs the ever coursing Inner 
Spirit, which forces, in its stupendous track (comet-like) the 
bordering matter into Flame — to Life. 

"Is not all the world a woven tissue — wizard-colored — of 
which the creative sun strikes the spangles into sparkling; stains, 
prismatically, with the rose-hues of being, or the blues of decay 
— or, rather, change? Roars not old ocean with his caves; as 
the Nereid music swelleth or sinketh, to fascination, loudly or 
faintly through its shell? Fires, and smokes, and springs, and 
steam attest the attenuate bulk, spun through the hands of 
the Great Magnetic Life, or by the power of the Earth-Body, into 
tissues. What is at the core, and the mighty heart of the great 
world, but the spouting fire? What are the magnificent air- 
shapes of our atmosphere; what the crossed cloud-platforms 
of our sky; what the reduplicate and multiplicate fog-work and 
flocculance of the Western or the Eastern Heavens, when the 
golden or the burning light is poured through the heaped won- 
der-worlds of the Magician of the Great Air; — what should be 
all the cloud-settings of our sky, but as the precipitate, and 
dross, of the mere 'used-up matter;' — glorious to our senses, as 
even all the refuse is ? And if Fire be, in its own nature — so to 
speak — but the roaring back, the illuminate, of Nature from 
the real unto the unreal ( as which the Magi teach, and as which 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 97 

the worshippers of the Spirit of Fire believe), then the very ex- 
cess of material light shall be but as the very excess of the dense 
matter, remonstrating (as it were), itself the brighter as it is, 
in itself, the blacker. Nor are these the vagaries of Philosoph- 
ers, but the world-old persuasions, when the vanity of knowledge 
had not made a base 'machine of wheels' of the world ! 

"Let us rest with this sublime assurance; the Kingdom of 
God lieth much nearer to us than we believe in our vain imagina- 
tion of possibilities. Yea, is at our door! God on our Thres- 
hold! We all the while — Peter-like — denying Him. Denying 
the Spirits because we cannot feel the Spirit! 

"The old Buddhists — as equally as the ancient believers in 
the Doctrine of the Universal Spiritual Fire — taught that Spirit 
Light was the floor or basis of all created things. The material 
side or complement of this Spiritual Light being Fire, into 
which element all things could be rendered; and which Fire (or 
Heat) was the motive of all things that are. They taught that 
matter or mind — as the superflux — as the sum of sensations, or 
as natural and unreal shows of their various kinds — were plied, 
as layer on layer, or tissue on tissue, on this immutable and 
Immortal floor or ground- work of Divine Flame, the soul of the 
world. 

Such is the magnificent view the Buddhists hold of Crea- 
tion. Is it any wonder that it has more votaries than any other 
system of Religion? Fire — Love — God, is the foundation of 
this Philosophy, though in this instance taught in a negative 
form — that God can be reached by means of contemplation 
rather than by work, which supplies us with the key as to the 
reason a few Englishmen can rule millions of the inhabitants 
of India. 

The emotion, intensity, mind-agitation, thought, according 
to the powers of the unit or the lifting heavenward: — or as the 
dots or dimples in the ever-flowing onwave of being: were — to 
speak in the familiar sense — "as impressions down," perhaps 



98 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

through and through its covers, upon this living floor of 3pirit- 
ual Flame. The escape of which was the magnetism — magnet- 
ism of the body : supersential force, or miracle, of the spirit. 

The Paracelsists of the sixteenth century were also Philoso- 
phers of Fire and were known as such. "The Fire-Philosophers, 
or Philosophi per ignem, were known throughout every country 
of Europe and declared that the intimate Essenes of natural 
things were only to be known by the trying effects of Fire, direct- 
ed in a chemical process. They insisted that human reason 
might be a dangerous and deceitful guide; that no real progress 
could be made in knowledge, or in religion, by it, and that to 
all vital, that is, supernatural purpose, it was a vain thing; they 
also taught that Divine and supernatural exaltation was the only 
means of arriving at Truth. Their name of Paracelsists was 
derived from Paracelsus,* the eminent physician and chemist, 
who was the chief Philosopher of this school. In England, 
Robert Fludd was their great advocate and exponent. Rivier, 
who wrote in France; Severinus, an author of Denmark; Kun- 
rath, an eminent physician of Dresden; and Daniel Hoffman, 
professor of Divinity in the University of Helmstadt, have also 
treated largely on Paracelsus, and on his system. 

"Akin to the school of the Ancient Philosophers and of the 
Magnetists cf a later period," says Dr. Ennermoser, "of the 
same cast as these speculators and searchers into the mysteries 
of nature, drawing from the same source, were the Theosophists 
(the Paracelsists were termed Theosophists by this author) of 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuris. These practiced chemis- 
try, by which they asserted that they could explain the profound- 
est secrets of nature. As they strove, above all earthly knowl- 
edge, after the divine, and sought the Divine Light and Fire, 



*After the "Fame Fraternities or. Discovery of the Fraternity of the 
most Laudable Order of the Rosy Cross" was issued by Christian Rosen- 
crutz, they became known as Rqsicrucians,., See "The Rosicrucians ; 
Their Teachings." 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 99 

through which all men acquire the true wisdom, they were called 
the Fire-Philosophers. As a great general principle, they called 
the Soul a Fire, taken from the eternal ocean of Light. 

Hargrave Jennings, the Rosicrucian and Philosopher, says: 
"We may thus sum our historical examination. That, at every 
turn of our inquiry, we meet Light. At every cross-road, as it 
were, of our laborious journey — of our philosophical pilgrimage 
— we encounter this pertinacious and ever-flowing Light. Not 
only at birth, but as taking a prominent part in the torch-cele- 
bration at marriage, and again, and more impressively, at death 
and in the ceremonials of sepulture, the panthom of Light never 
fails. It is the more dimly or the brighter — the more gloriously 
and the more cheerfully celebrant, or the more awfully full 
everywhere disclosed. As everything, it must — though dis- 
guised — be everything. What may mean this concentrate, Re- 
splendent Fifure? This ever-flowing myth? This terrible, and 
yet this Grand Angel, found at the couch-side at our birth, ac- 
companying us, as the best and most distant sacrifice, to the altar 
of presentation, where our mother bows in her thanksgivings to 
the Holy God who has helped her in her time of need ; and who 
has equally made birth, and life, and death, and as equally 
vouchsafed safety in each and all? What is this that presseth 
in — chief est of guests — at our marriages, in all the splendor of 
his yellowest glow; and waiting, with his face shrouded, with 
his pale lights and abounding in ghostly tapers — though in the 
glory of the hope of heaven! — at that last, solemn scene, where 
the very cause of the sable royalties — black (Imperial, then, 
alike to poor and rich in the common Spirit-threshold upon 
which we all stand) — is as the smallest, and very often the 
least thought-of, of all the show? What, to conclude, is this 
Fire which is so constantly about us, and of which we think so 
little and know so little, but which seems over-whelmingly 
much? What is this wondrous, universal Element, or least 
proveable Soul of the World, which hath been so significantly, 



ICO PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

and yet so unsuspectedly, mythed; universally, through the in- 
telligent ages? What is this Magic reflection which is glassed 
through Time? We ask thinkers for an answer. But only out 
of their meditations — only out of the impossibility of denial — do 
we hope to wring the confession of the Divine Spirit that is in 
the Fire. 

Of course we have no reference to material fire, but to a 
something of which the material fire is merely an image. Being 
the imparticled spirit, in which everything is at one, as in which 
are the things only unreal. And unreal things (out of the 
World) are the only real. 

"Through two baptismals must the Initiate pass. Through 
the baptism of both Fire and Water. The mysterious meaning 
of bapt'sm by water as a symbolism prevailing through all 
faiths, Heathen and Christian. It is that of the earliest tradi- 
tional or the Pythagorean Transmigration, not abjudged as by 
its vulgar reading, but as signifying the onward dissolution, into 
nothingness, of being, that is, of this being, through the farthest 
separated (save air, in which man always is, and therefore al- 
ways is baptised) matter — water! This, therefore, is the only 
element for a rite. Holy water, and ablution, also signify the 
same although the church has lost the meaning. Thence, as 
from the next-loosest of matters-water, the only possible symbol 
for a rite. Man is delivered into the farther, supernatural, airy 
changes, where matter ceases — loosening utterly from above him. 
And, then, the Spirit of Fire, begins, taking up the matter-undu- 
lations. This is the freedom into the foundations, or inspiring 
Light— the God Flame of the Magi— the Holy Spirit of the 
Christians; the everything, out of this state, and the nothing in 
it, of all religions. Life — nay, all existence — being considered 
as a Purgatory cf a severer cr a more assuasive order. And, 
therefore, being evil— or God's Shadow — for the very reason of 
its being Life — or consciousness at all." 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 101 

This is the Mystic meaning cf that text in the New Testa- 
ment where St. John declares: "I "ndeed i aptize you with 
water unto repentance; tut he that comes after me is mightier 
than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; he shall baptize 
you with the Koly Ghost." r n the Ian a age cf the Philoso- 
phers, this is the baptism with Fire. 



INTELLECTUALITY 

It is a fundamental doctrine of the Secret Schools that in- 
tellectual attainments are highly desirable and to be encouraged, 
though mental brilliancy alone will not make Conscious Indi- 
viduality a possibility. On the contrary, it may, and often does, 
give the possessor. an exalted opinion of himself; critical of both 
the teachings and actions of those who could help him on the 
way; unwilling to obey instructions, and prone to argue the 
method indicated by the instructor, thus preventing him from 
travelling the lowly Path leading to Soul Illumination — the boon 
of Immortality. 



The Sacred Fire 

(Continuation of Philosophy of Fire) 

The appearance of God to mortals seems always to have 
been in brightness and great glory, whether He was angry and 
in displeasures, or benign and kind. These appearances are 
mentioned throughout the Bible. 

"And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that 
there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the 
mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all 
the people that were in the camp trembled. 

"And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to 
meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. 

"And Mount Sinai was altogether in smoke, because the 
Lord descended upon it in fire (italics mine) : and the smoke 
thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole 
mount quaked greatly. 

"And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and 
waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him 
by a voice. 

"And the Lord said unto Moses, go down, charge the 
people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze^ and 
many of them perish. 

"And let the priests also, which come near to the Lord, 
sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them." Exo- 
dus 19: 16 to 23. 

We have been taught that by means of the connection? 
made between man and God through Jesus who became the 
Christ, God would draw nearer to mankind. The Lord God 



104 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

appeared to Moses long before the time of Jesus, when mankind 
is said to have been far less evolved than at present, then why 
should God be unable to appear to man at the present time? 
Only one answer is possible: Either man has retrograded, 
which we cannot, and do not, admit, or God is just as willing to 
appear to man today as He was in the past, provided man brings 
about the conditions making this appearance possible. 

In these verses it is likewise clearly indicated that it is 
dangerous for anyone to attempt to come into the presence of 
God, or the Fire in which He may appear, if such are not care- 
fully and thoroughly prepared, for He said to Moses: "Go 
down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord 
to gaze, and many of them perish.'' 

This was the Fundamental Doctrine taught in the Anci- 
ent Mysteries, just as it is in the Secret Schools of the present: 
That man may so live as to make it possible for God to appear 
unto him and instruct him, through the medium of the Fire, 
and furthermore, if man attempts to come into the presence of 
God, or draws unto himself, the Sacred Fire before he is fully 
prepared, death may result. In not one particle has the Secret 
School changed in all these years since the mighty Initiate- 
Priests ruled wisely in Egypt; since Moses led away the Israel- 
ites after the Priesthood had fallen into degradation, or the 
time when Jesus was trained by the Essenes. 

In Deuteronomy God instructs Moses what he should 
teach the children he had led to safety so they might remain a 
great people; it would be well if the people of the present age 
might heed these same instructions and profit greatly thereby : 

"For what nation is there so great who hath God so nigh 
unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon 
him for? 

"And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and 
judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you 
this day? 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 105 

"Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, 
lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest 
they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach 
them thy sons, and thy sons' sons; 

''Specially the day that thou stoodst before the Lord thy 
God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, Gather me the peo- 
ple together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may 
learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, 
and that they may teach their children. 

"And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the 
mountain burned with -fire unto the midst of heaven, with dark- 
ness, clouds and thick darkness. 

"And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: 
ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye 
heard a voice.'' Deut. 4: 7-12. 

In this instance it matters little whether we interpret this 
to mean that the fire within Moses, which we call the Soul, thus 
spoke to him, or whether it was actually God Himself. In the 
one instance it would be the Voice of God through the Living 
Soul within Moses, while in the other it would be God speaking 
directly to Moses, but even so, God does not speak to the mater- 
ial man; only to the Soul of Man, wruch is likewise a fire, as 
does God always appear through fire, which He is. 

"Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the 
priest of Midian: and held the flock to the backside of the 
desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. 

"And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame 
of fire out of the midst of a bush : and he looked, and, behold, 
the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. 

"And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great 
sight, why the bush is not burnt. 

"And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God 
called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, 
Moses. And he said, Here am I. 



106 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

"And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from 
off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." 
Exodus 3: 1-5. 

Why should the bush have been on fire and yet remained 
unconsumed? Simply because the bush here has reference to 
the body, the physical being named Moses, while the Fire within 
the bush represented the Soul of Moses having become awakened 
and into communication with God, as always happens when man 
travels the Path which leads to Illumination. 

The Voice which spake unto Moses, was that of the Soul, 
the Conscience. It was the Soul become Conscious and in com- 
munication with God which Spake unto Moses and instructed 
him what he should do. 

It is through this message received by Moses from God, 
whereon is based the doctrine of the modern Secret Schools, as 
well as that of Masonry, which inculcates the tenet, requiring the 
Profane to free themselves of shoes and ordinary. clothing before 
they may enter the Path of Initiation. It is representative of 
giving up all that is material and destructive when one enters 
the Path, shoes being emblematic of all that is material, earthly, 
and temporary. 

The appearances of the Angel of God's presence, or that 
Divine Person who represents God, likewise the presence which 
is symbolic of God, are always in brightness ; or, in other words, 
the Shechinah was always surrounded with glory. This seems 
to have given occasion to those of old to imagine fire as the 
sphere in which God dwelt. 

It was the fire from the Lord which consumed upon the 
altar the burnt offerings of Aaron : 

"And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the 
congregation, and came out, and blessed the people: and the 
glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people. 

"And there came a fire out from the Lord, and consumed 
upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 107 

the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces. Lev: 23-24. 

Strange it seems, that people in this age should be willing 
to believe God was willing to accept the offerings of the ancient 
people, but if one of us were to attempt to preach that Incense 
offered to God with a prayerful heart and noble desire were ac- 
ceptable to Him, we would be considered as either insane or 
fanatics. Nevertheless, if God made Laws at the creation of 
Order out of Chaos, then those Laws must exist today as they 
did in the beginning. God being unchangeable, that which He 
created must likewise be unchangeable, otherwise he would not 
be the unchangeable God, and being changeable He could not 
be Eternal; since that which is Everlasting and Eternal must 
be Unchangeable. 

In Judges we find: "And Gideon went in, and made ready 
a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he 
put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it 
out unto him under the oak, and presented it'. 

"And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and 
the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out 
the broth. And he did so. 

"Then the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff 
that was in his hand, and touched, the flesh and the unleavened 
cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the 
flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the Lord 
departed out of his sight." Judges 6: 19-21. 

The things the ancients did in goodness of heart, manifest- 
ing thereby their willingness to be a servant in the sight of their 
God, was acceptable to God, and likewise is this true at the 
present day. God requires the services of his creation as much 
at the present time as He did then, if not more so, and only the 
unbelief of the multitudes prevents the Lord from manifesting 
Himself unto his creatures. 

"And David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered 
burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the Lord; 



108 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt 
offering. 

"And the Lord commanded the angel; and he put up his 
sword again into the sheath thereof. 

"At that time when. David saw that the Lord had answered 
him in the threshing floor of Oman the Jebusite, then he sacri- 
ficed there. 

"For the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made in the 
wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that sea- 
son in the high place at Gibeon." I Chron. 21 :-26-29. 

At the dedication of the temple of Solomon, God showed 
His pleasure by appearing in a Fire and consuming the burnt 
offering : 

"Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire 
came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and 
the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the house. 

"And the priests could not enter into the house of the 
Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house. 

"And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came 
down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed 
themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, 
and worshipped, and praised the Lord, saying, For He is good; 
for his mercy endureth for ever." 2 Chron. 7: 1-3. 

About an hundred years thereafter, Elijah made an extra- 
ordinary sacrifice in proof that Baal was not a god : 

"And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the 
evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, 
Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel (Jacob), let it be 
known this day thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy ser- 
vant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. 

"Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that 
thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart 
back again. 

"Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 109 

sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked 
up the water that was in the. trench, 

'''And when all the people saw it, they fell on their face.-: 
and they said, The Lcrd, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God. 

"And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let 
not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah 
brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there," 
I Kings 18: 36-40. 

Already in Genesis man had become degraded and through 
the medium of fire God made a covenant with Abram : 

"But in th? fourth generation they shall come hither again: 
for the iniquity of the x\morites is not yet full. 

"And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and 
it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that 
passed between those pieces. 

"In the same day the Lcrd made a covenant with Abram, 
saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of 
Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:"' 

Of such vast importance was it to every woman to become a 
mother that when those who were barren called upon the Lord 
for relief from their unhallowed state, the Lord listened unto 
them. Thus we find in the thirteenth chapter of Judges, an 
angel appeared to the wife of Manoah. Now the wife of Manoah 
was barren, and the angel promised her the birth of a child if 
she obey certain instructions which it would be well if all 
women of our most gloriously enlightened age would follow: 

"And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman, and 
said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: 
but thou should conceive, and bear a son. 

"Now, therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine 
nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing. 

•For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor' 
shall come on his head : for the child shall be a Nazarite unto 



HO MlLOSOPHY Of FIRE 

God from the womb : and he shall begin to deliver Israel out Ot 
the hand of the Philistines." Judges 13 : 3-5. 

There is a sound scientific reason for the instructions given 
the wife of the Danite: Both wine and other strong drink, as 
well as the meats (unclean things) are acid in their nature, and 
eating of them may, and often does, create such an acidity of the 
system that the lochia of the woman is so acid in its nature as to 
destroy the seed and prevent impregnation of the ovum. 

Manoah desired to speak with the angel and at his request, 
God allowed the angel to appear before him, though Manoah 
thought it a man: 

"So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered 
it upon a rock unto the Lord: and the angel did wondrously; 
and Manoah and his wife looked on. 

"For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward 
heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in 
the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, 
and fell on their faces to the ground/' Judges 14: 19-20. 

"The first appearance of God, then, being in a glory — or, 
which is the same thing, in light or fire — and He showing His 
acceptance of sacrifices in so many instances by consuming 
them with fire, hence it was that the Eastern people, and par- 
ticularly the Persians, fell into the worship of fire as a symbol 
of God's presence, and worshipped God in, or through, fire. 
From the Assyrians, or Chaldeans, or Persians, this worship 
was propagated southward among the Egyptians, and westward 
among the Greeks; and by them it was brought into Italy. The 
Greeks were wont to meet together to worship their Prytaneia, 
and there they consulted for the public good; and there was a 
constant fire kept upon the altar, which was dignified by the 
name of Vesta by some. The fire itself was properly Vesta; and 
so Ovid said: 

"Nee te aliud Vestam, quam vivam intelligere flammam." 

The Prytaneia were the atria of the temples, wherein a 



PHILOSOPHY OP MrL ill 



fife was kept that was never suffered to go out. On the change 
in architectural forms from the pyramidal (or the horizontal) to 
the obeliscar (or the upright, or vertical), the flames were trans- 
ferred from the altars, or cubes, to the summits of the typical up- 
rights, or towers; or to the tops of the candles, such as we see 
them used now in Catholic worship, which art* called "tapers/' 
from their tapering or pyramidal form, and which are supposed 
always to indicate the Divine presence or influence. This, 
through the symbolism that there is in the Living Light, which 
is the last exalted show of fluent or of inflamed brilliant mat- 
ter, passing off into the unknown and unseen world of celestial 
light (or Occult Fire), to which all the forms of things tend, 
and in which even idea itself passes from recognition as mean- 
ing, and evolves — spring up, as all flame does, to escape, and to 
wing away. 

"Vesta, or the fire, was worshipped in circular temples, 
which were the images, or the miniatures of the "temple" of the 
world, with its dome, or cope, of stars. It was in ihe. atria of 
the temples, and in the presence of and before the above-men- 
tioned lights, and the forms of ceremonial worship were always 
observed. It is certain that Vesta was worshipped at Troy; and 
Aeneas brought her into Italy, for in the Aeneid it is written : 

"manibus vittas, Vestamque potentem, AEternumque adytis 
effert penetralibus Ignem.'' — AEneir, ii 298. 

Numa settled an order of Virgin Priestesses, whose business 
and care it was constantly to maintain the Holy Fire. And 
long befcre Numa's day, we find it not only customary, but hon- 
orable, among the Albans to appoint the best-born virgins to be 
Priestesses of Vesta, and to keep up the constant unextinguished 
fire. 

It is from this that sprang the Catholic Vestals so well 
known throughout the civilized nations. This worship was all 
purity in its beginning but like many other pure religious prac- 
tices, it was abuse'd to such an extent that the underlying prin- 



112 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

ciple is no longer recognizable. The foundation of Fire Worship 
is in God and no man can say it is a heathen practice who has 
given it any consideration whatever. 

"When Virgil speaks (AEneid, iv. 200) of Iarbas, in 
Africa, as building a hundred temples and a hundred altars, 
he says: 

"vigilemque sacraverat Ingem, Excubian Divum asternas," 
— that he had "concentrated a fire that never went out." And 
he calls these temples and these lights, or this fire, the "Per- 
petual Watch," "Watch Lights," or proof of the presence of the 
Gods. By which expression he means, that the places and things 
were constantly protected and solemnized where such lights 
burned, and that the celestials, or angel-defenders, "camped," 
as it were, and were sure to be met with thickly, where these 
flames upon the altars, and these torches or lights about the tem- 
ples, were studiously and incessantly maintained" 

"Thus the custom seems to have been general from the 
earliest antiquity to maintain a constant fire, as conceiving the 
Gods present there. 1 his was not merely the opinion of the 
inhabitants of Judaea, but it extended all over Persia, Greece, 
Italy, Egypt, and most other nations of the world. Even in 
Masonry of the present age there can be no initiation without its 
lighted tapers. Why? 

"Prophyry imagined that the reason the most ancient 
mortals kept up a constant, everburning fire in honor of the im- 
mortal Gods was because Fire was most like God. He says that 
the ancients kept an unextinguished fire in their temples to the 
Gods because it was like them. Fire was not especially like the 
Gods, but through it their presence became manifest to mortals. 
The true God always appeared in brightness and glory; yet no 
one would say that the brightness was God, but was most like the 
Shechinah, in which God appeared. Hence the custom arose of 
keeping up an unextinguished fire in the ancient temples. 

"God, then, being wont to appear in Fire, and being con- 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 113 

ceived to dwell in Fire, the notion spread universally, and was 
universally admitted. First, then, it was not at all out of the 
way to think of engaging in friendship with God by the same 
means as they contracted friendship with one another. And 
since they to whom God appeared saw Him appear in Fire, and 
they acquainted others with such appearances, He was con- 
ceived to dwell in Fire. By degrees, therefore the world came 
to be over-curious in the fire that was constantly to be kept up, 
and in things to be sacrificed ; and they proceeded from one step 
to another, till at length they filled up the measure of their 
aberrations, which were in reality instigated by their zeal, and 
by their intense desire to mitigate the displeasure of their divini- 
ties — for religion was a much more intense feeling in earlier 
days — by passing into undesirable ceremonies in regard to this 
fire, which they reverenced as the last possible physical form of 
divinity ; not only in its grandeur and power, but also in its 
purity. 

"The pyramidal or triangular form which Fire assumes in 
its ascent to heaven is in the monolithic typology used to signify 
the great generative power. We have only to look to Stonehenge, 
Ellora, the Babel-towers of Central Africa, the gigantic ruins 
scattered all over Tartary and India, to see how gloriously they 
symbolized the majesty of the Supreme Being. To these upright 
obelisks, or lithoi, of the old world, including the Bethel, or 
Jacob's Pillar, or Pillow, raised in the plain of "Luz," we will 
add, as the commemorative or reminding shape of the Fire, the 
Pyramids of Egypt, the Millenarius, Gnomon, Mete-Stone, or 
Mark, called London-Stone, and all Crosses raised at the junc 
tion of four roads, all Market-crosses, the Round-Towers of 
Ireland, and in all the changeable aspects of their genealogy, all 
spires and towers, in their grand hieroglyphic proclamation, all 
over the world." 

Thus, in what has been written, mighty truths have been 
given to all Neophytes, Initiates and Mystics whereby they 



114 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

should profit. It is the duty of those of the Secret Schools who 
are undergoing training, and while in "practice" to have their 
light lighted, and to burn incense; for, where the light and in- 
cense are, the impure Elements dare not enter, and thus is the 
Neophyte afforded protection, provided mind and heart are 
kept pure from impious and unworthy thoughts. Likewise, 
"when you see the Light, listen to the Voice of the Light" as 
Moses of old listened to the Voice in the burning bush. 



The Philosophij of the Persians 

As a great general principle, the Initiated, as do all the 
members of the Secret Schools of the present, designated the Soul 
a Fire, called from the eternal ocean of Light. 

In regard to the supernatural — using the word in its widest 
sense — it may be said that "all the difficulty in admitting the 
strange things told us lies in the non-admission of an internal 
causal world as absolutely real: it is said, in intellectually ad- 
mitting, because the influence of the arts proves that man's feel- 
ings always have admitted, and do still admit, this reality. 

"The Persian philosophy of Vision is, that it is the view of 
objects really existing in interior Light, which, assuming form, 
not according to arbitrary laws, but according to the state of 
Mind. This interior light unites with exterior light in the eye, 
and is thus drawn into a sensual or imaginative activity; but 
when the outward light is separated, it reposes in its own serene 
atmosphere. It is, then, in this state of interior repose, that the 
usual class of religious, or what are called inspired, visions, 
occur. It is the same light of eternity so frequently alluded to 
in books that treat of mysterious objects; the light revealed to 
Pimander, Zoroaster, and all the sages of the East, as the 
emanation of the Spiritual Sun. Bohmen writes of it as his 
Divine Vision of Contemplation, and Molinos in his Spiritual 
Guide, — whose work is the ground of Quietism : Quietism being 
the foundation of the religion of the people called Friends, or 
Quakers, as also of the other Mystic or meditative sects. We en- 
large from a very learned, candid, and instructive book upon 
the Occult Science. 



116 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

"Regard Fire, then, with other eyes than with those soul- 
less, incurious ones, with which thou hast looked upon it as the 
most ordinary thing. Thou hast forgotten what it is — or rather 
thou hast never known. Chemists are silent about it; or, may 
we not say that it is too loud for them? Therefore shall they 
speak fearfully of it in whispers. Philosophers talk of it as 
anatomists discourse of the continents (cr the parts) of the 
human body — as a piece of mechanism, wondrous though it be. 
Such the wheels of the clock, say they in their ingenious ex- 
pounding of the "whys" and the "wherefores" (and the mech- 
anics and the mathematics) of this mysterious thing, with a 
supernatural soul ;n it, called world. Such is the chain, such 
are the balances, such the larger and the smaller mechanical 
forces; such the "Time-blood," as it were, that is sent circu- 
lating through it; such is the striking, with an infinity of bells. 
It is made for man, this world, and it is greatly like him — that 
is, mean, they would add. ♦ 

"Note th? goings of the Fire, as he creepeth, serpentineth, 
riseth, slinketh, broadeneth. Note him reddening, glowing, 
whitening. Tremble at his face, dilating; at the meaning that is 
growing into it, to you. See that spark from the blacksmith's 
anvil! — struck, as an insect, out of a sky containing a whole 
cloud of such. Rare locusts, of which Pharaoh and the Cities 
of the Plain read o.' old the Secret! One, two, three sparks; — 
dozens come: — faste- and faster the fiery squadrons follow, un- 
til, in a short while, a whole possible army of that hungry thing 
for battle, for food for it — Fire — glances up; but is soon warn- 
ed in again! -lest acres :-hould glow in the growing advance. 
Think that this thing is bound as in matter-chains. Think that 
He is outside of all things, and deep in the inside of all things; 
and that thou rnd thy world are only the thing between: and 
that outside and n-ide are both identical, couldst thou under- 
stand the supernatural truths! Reverence Fire (for its mean- 
ing), and tremble at it; though in the Earth it be chained, and 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 117 



the foot of the Archangel Michael — like upon the Dragon — be 
upon it! Avert the face from it, as the Magi turned, dreading, 
and (as the symbol) Lefcre it bowed askance. So much for 
this Great thing — Fire ! 

"Observe the multiform shapes of fire; the flame- wreaths, 
the spires, the stars, the spots, the cascades, and the mighty 
falls of it; where the roar, when it grows high in Imperial raa- 
terdom, as that of Niagara. Think what it can do, what it is. 
Watch the trail of sparks, struck, as in that spouting arch, from 
the metal shoes of the trampling horse. It is a letter of the great 
alphabet. The familiar London streets, even, can give the Per- 
sian's God: though in ihy pleasures, and in thy commerce 
operations, thou so oft forgettest thine own God. Whence lib- 
erated are those sparks? — as stars, afar off, of a whole sky 01* 
flame; — sparks, deep down in possibility, though close to us; — 
great in their meaning, though small in their show; — as dis 
tant single ships of whole fiery fleets; — animate children of, in 
thy human conception, a dreadful, but, in reality, a great world. 
of which thou knowest nothing. They fall, foodless, on the re- 
jecting, barren, and (on the outside) the coldest stone. But in 
each stone, fence flinty and chilling as the outside is, is a heart 
of fire, to strike at which is to bid gush forth the waters, as it 
were, of every fire, like waters of the rock ! Truly, out of sparks 
can be displayed a whole acreage of fire-works. Forests can be 
conceived of flame — palaces of the fire; Grandest things — Soul 
things — last things — all things ! 

"W'onder no longer, then, if, rejected so long as an idolatry. 
the ancient Persians, and their Masters, the Magi, — concluding 
that they saw "All" in this supernaturally magnificent element. 
— fell down and worshipped it; making it the Visible represen- 
tation of the very truest; but yet, in man's speculation, and in his 
philosophers, — nay, in his commonest reason, — impossible God: 
God being everywhere, and in us, indeed, us, in the God-lighted 



118 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

man; and impossible to be contemplated or known outside, — be- 
ing All! 

"Lights and flames, and the torches, as it were, of fire (all 
fire in this world, the last background on which all things are 
painted), may be considered as "lancets" of another world — the 
last world: circles, enclosed by the thick walls (which, however, 
by the Fire are kept from closing) of this world. As fire and 
brandishes, will the walls of this world wave, and, as it were, 
undulate from about it. In smoke and disruption, or combus- 
tion of matter, we witness a phenomenon of the burning as of the 
edges of the matter-rings of this world, in which world is fire, 
like a spot; that dense and hard thing, matter, holding it in. 
-Oxygen, which is the finest of air, and is the means of the quick- 
est burning out, or the supernatural (in this world) exhilaration 
of animal life, or extenuation of the Solid; and, above all, the 
heightening of the capacity of the Human, as being the quintess- 
ence of matter : this oxygen is the thing which feeds fire the most 
overwhelmingly. Nor would the specks, spots and stars of 
fire stop in this dense world-medium, — in this tissue or sea of 
things, — could it farther and farther fasten upon and devour the 
solids : eating, as it were, through them. But as this thick world 
is a thing the thickest, it presses out, thrusts, or gravitates upon, 
and stifles, in its too great weight; and conquers not only that 
liveliest, subtlest, thinnest element of the solids, the finest air, by 
whatever chemical name — Oxygen, Azote, Azone, or what not — 
it may be called; which, in fact, is merely the nomenclature of 
its composition, the naming of the ingredients which make the 
thing (but not the thing). The denseness of the world not only 
conquers this, we repeat; but, so to figure it, matter stamps upon, 
effaces, and treads out fire: which, else, would burn on, back, 
as in the beginning of things, or into itself, — consuming, as in 
its great revenge of anything being created other than it, all the 
mighty worlds which, in Creation, were permitted out of it. This 
is the teaching of the ancient Fire-Philosophers reestablished 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 119 

and restored, to the days of comprehension of them, in the con- 
clusions of the Rosicrucians of later times, who discovered the 
Eternal Fire; also found "God" in the "Immortal Light."* 

"There are all grades or graduations of the density of 
matter; but it all coheres by the one law of gravitation. Now, 
this gravitation is mistaken for a force of itself, when it is noth- 
ing but the sympathy, or the taking away of the supposed thing 
between two other things. It is sympathy (or appetite) seeking 
its food, or as the closing together of two things. It is not be- 
cause one mass of matter is more ponderable or attractive than 
another (out of our senses, and in reality), but that they are the 
same, with different amounts of affection, and that like seeks 
like, not recognizing or knowing that between. Now, this thing 
which is, as it were, slipped between, and which we strike into 
show of itself, or into fire — surprised and driven out of its am- 
bush — is Fire. It is as the letter by which matter spells itself 
out — so to speak. Now, matter is only to be finally forced 
asunder by heat; flame being the bright, subtle something which 
comes last, and is the expansion, fruit, crown, or glory of heat: 
it is the vivid and visible soul, essence, and spirit of heat — the 
last evolvement before rending, and before the forcible closing 
again of all the center-speeding weights, or desires, of matter. 
Flame is the expanding out (or even exploding) flower to this 
growing thing, heat: it is at the bubble of it — the fruit (to which 
before we have likened it), or seed, in the outside Hand upon it. 
Given the super-natural Flora, heat is as the gorgeous plant, and 
flame the glorifying flower; and as growth is greater out of the 
greater matrix, or matter of growing, so the thicker the material 
of fire (as we may roughly figure it, though we hope we shall 
be understood), so the stronger shall be the fire, and of neces- 



*See "Divine Alchemy" for the mystery of Fire — Sex. 



120 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

sity the fiercer will it be perceived to be — result being according 
to power. 

"Thus we get more of fire — that is, heat — out of the hard 
things : there being more of the thing Fire in them. 

"But Fire disjoints, as it were, all the hinges of the house — 
laps out the coherence of it — sets ablaze the dense thing, matter 
— makes the dark metals run like waters of light — conjures the 
black devils out of the minerals, and, to our astonishment, shows 
them much libelled, blinding, angel- white ! By Fire we can lay 
our hands upon the solids, part them, powder them, melt them, 
fine them, drive them out to more and more delicate and impalp- 
able texture — firing their invisible molecules, or imponderables, 
into clouds, into mist, into gas: out of seeing, into smelling; 
out of smelling into nothing — into real nothing — not even into 
the last blue sky. These are the potent operations of Fire — the 
crucible into which we cast all the worlds, and find them, in 
their last evolution, not even smoke. These are physical and 
scientific facts which there can be no gainsaying — which were 
seen and found out long ago, ages ago, in the reveries first, and 
then in the practice, of the great Magnetists (Rosicrucians), and 
those who were called the Fire-Philosophers, of whom we have 
spoken before. 

"What is that mysterious and inscrutable operation, the 
striking of fire from flint? Familiar as it is, who remarks it? 
Where, in that hardest, closest pressing together of matter — 
where the granulation compresses, shining even in its hardness, 
into the solidest Laminae of cold, darkest, blue, and streaky, 
core-like, agate-resembling white — lie the seeds of fire, spiritual 
flame-seeds to the so stony fruit? In what folds of the flint, in 
the block of it — in what invisible recess — speckled and spotted, 
in what tissue — crouch the fire-sparks ? — -to issue, in showers, on 
the stroke of iron — on the so sudden clattering (as of the crow- 
bars of man) — on its stony doors. Stone carving the thing Fire, 
unseen, as its sepulchre; stroke warning the magical thing forth. 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 121 

Whence comes that trail of fire from the cold bosom of the hard, 
secret, unexploding flint? — Children as from what hard, rocky 
breast; yet hiding its so sacred, sudden fire-birth! Who — and 
what science-philosopher — can explain this wondrous darting 
forth of the hidden something, which he shall try in vain to ar- 
rest, but which, like a spirit, escapes him? If we ask what fire 
is, of the man of science, they are at fault. They will tell us 
that it is a phenomenon, that their vocabularies can give no 
further account of it. They will explain to us all that can be 
said of it, that it is a last affection of matter, to the results of 
what (in the world of man) they can only testify, but of whose 
coming and of whose going — of the place from whence it came, 
and the whereabouts to which it goeth — they are entirely ignor- 
ant, — and would give a world to know. 

The foregoing, — however feebly expressed, are a few of the 
views of the Rosicrucians* respecting the nature of this sup- 
posedly familiar, but yet puzzling, thing — Fire. 



*For the inner Mystery of the Fire Philosophy of the Rosicrucians, 
see "Divine Alchemy." 



LET PHYSICAL SCIENCE ANSWER 

We have always been taught, and accepted without question, 
that the mind functions in the brain; that through mental pro- 
cesses we do all our thinking, planning, reasoning, and judging; 
all this taking place in the head. 

Why is it that when we receive unfortunate news there is no 
feeling in the brain, no pain, not even a depression, but instead, 
a heavy, cold, nauseating feeling in the pit of the stomach, di- 
rectly over what is termed the "Abdominal Brain"? 

Why does the Solar Plexus feel cold, nervous, and we lose 
our appetite when under a mental (so-called) or physical 
strain? 

If the mind functions only in the brain, as. the majority be- 
lieve, why is there no pain in the head, no depression or mental 
blurness, rather than an uncomfortableness in the stomach? 

Is it not a fact that throughout the Bible little is mentioned 
respecting the brain, but time and again are we reminded to be 
watchful of the "belly", the reins, and the loins. 

Is it not a fact that the vast majority believe the mind to 
function in the head merely because we see through the eyes and 
they are in the head? 

A study of the Abdominal Brain would be of inestimable 
value to the student of Science; Science being due to the dis- 
covery of a fact known to the Scriptural writers. More anon. 



Rosicrucian Fire Philosophy 

"Sparks surrender out of the world, when they disappear to 
us, in the universal ocean of Invisible Fire. What is its disap- 
pearance ? It quits us in the supposed light, but to it really 
darkness — as fire-born, the last level of all — to reappear in the 
true light, which is to us darkness. This is to understand; but, 
as the real is the direct contrary to the apparent, so that which 
shows as light to us is darkness in the supernatural; and that 
which is light to the supernatural is darkness to us: matter be- 
ing darkness, and Soul, light. For we know that light is mater- 
ial, and, being material, it must be dark. For the Spirit of God 
is not material, and therefore, not being material, it cannot be 
light to us, and therefore darkness to God. 

This was the belief of the oldest Initiates, the founders of 
magical knowledge in the East; the discoverers of the Gods, 
also the doctrine of the Fire-Philosophers, and of the later 
Rosicrucians, who taught that all knowable things (both of the 
Soul and of the body) were evolved out of Fire, and finally 
resolvable into it; and that Fire was the last and only-to-be- 
known God: as that all things were capable of being searched 
down into it, and of being thought up to it. Fire, they 
found, when, as it were, they took this world, solid to 
pieces (and also, as metaphysicians, distributed and divided 
the mind of man, seeking for that invisible God-thing, coherence 
of ideas) — fire, these thinkers found, in their supernatural light 
of mind, to be the latent, nameless matter started out of the tis- 
sues — certainly out of the body, presumably out of the mind— 



• °-l ----m---- 



124 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

with groan, disturbance, hard motion, and flash (when forced 
to sight of it), instantly disappearing, and relapsing, and hiding 
its Godhood in the closing-violently-again solid matter — as into 
the forcefully-resuming mind. Matter, the agent whose remon- 
strance at disturbance out of its Rest was, in the winds, murmur, 
noise, cries, as it were, of air; in the waters, rolling and roaring; 
in the piled floors of the sky, and their furniture, clouds, circum- 
volence, contest, and war, and thunders (defiant to nature, but 
groans to God), and intolerable lightning-rendings, matter tear- 
ing as a garment, to close supernaturally together again, as the 
Solid, fettered and chained — devil-bound — in the Hand upon it, 
"To Be!" In this sense, all noise (as the rousing or conjuration 
of matter by the outside forces) is the agony of its penance. All 
motion is pain, all activity punishment; and Fire is the secret, 
lowest, that is, foundation-spread, thing, the ultimate of all 
things, which is disclosed when the clouds of things roll, for an 
instant, off it — as the blue sky shows, in its fragments, like 
turquoises, when the canopy of clouds is wind-torn, speck-like 
from off it. Fire is that floor over which the coats or layers, or 
the spun kingdoms of matter, or of the subsidences of the past 
periods of time (which is built up of objects), are laid; tissues 
woven over a gulf of it: in one of which last, We Are. To 
which Fire we only become sensible when we start it by blows or 
force, in the rending up of atoms, and in the blasting out of 
them that which holds them, which then, as Secret Spirit, springs 
compelled to sight, and as instantly flies, except to the immortal 
eyes, which receives it (in the supernatural) on the other side. 

"The Fire-Philosophers maintained that we transcend 
everything into Fire, and that we lose it there in the flash, the 
escape of fire being as the door through which everything dis- 
appears to the other side. In their very peculiar speculations, 
and in this stupendous and supernatural view of the universe, 
where we think that fire is the exception, and is, as it were, 
spotted over the world (in reality, to go out when it goes out), 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 125 

they held that the direct contrary was the truth; that we, and 
all things, were spotted upon fire; that we conquer patches 
only of fire when we put it out, or win torches out of the great 
flame, when we enkindle fire,— which is our master in the truth, 
making itself, in our beliefs (in our human needs), the slave. 
Thus fire, when it is put out, only goes into the underworld, and 
the matter-flags close over it like a grave-stone! 

"When we witness Fire, we are as if peering only through a 
door into another world. Into this, all the things consumed 
into microscopical smallness) of this world, the compressed 
and concentrate matter-heaps of defunct tides of Being and 
Time, are in combustion rushing: kingdoms of the floors of the 
things passed through—up to this moment held in suspense la 
the invisible inner worlds. All roars through the hollow. Ail 
this is mastered in the operations of this Fire, and that is rush- 
ing through the hollow made by it in the partition- world of the 
Knowable — across, and out on the other side, into the Unknow- 
able — seeks, in the Fire, its last and most perfect evolution into 
absolute nothing, — as a bound prisoner urges to his feet, in his 
chains, and shrieks for freedom when he is smitten. In Fire, 
we witness a grand phenomenon of the subsidiary (or further, 
and under, and inner, and multiplied) birth and death, and the 
supernatural transit of microscopic worlds, passing from the 
human sense- worlds to other levels and into newer fields. Then 
it is that the Last Spirit, of which they are composed, is playing 
before us; and playing, and playing, into last extinction, out of 
its rings of this-side matter: all which matter, in its various 
stages of thickening, is as the flux of the Supernatural Fire, or 
inside God. 

"It will appear no wonder now, if the above abstractions be 
caught by the Thinker, how it was that the early people consid 
ered that they saw God, standing face to face with Him — that is, 
with all that, in their innermost possibility of thought, they 
could find as God — in Fire. Which Fire is- not our- vulgar, 



126 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

gross fire; neither is it the purest material fire, which has some- 
thing of the base, bright lights of the world still about it — bright- 
est though fhey be in the matter which makes them the Lightest 
to the material sight; but it is an occult, mysterious, or inner — 
not even magnetic, but a supernatural — Fire: a real, sensible, 
and the only possible Mind, or God, as containing all things, 
and as the soul of all things; into whose inexpressible intense, 
and all-devouring and divine, though fiery, gulf, all the worlds 
in succession, like ripe fruit to the ground, and all things, fall, 
— back into whose arms of Immortal Light: on the other side, 
as again receiving them, all things, thrown off as the smoke off 
light, again fall! 

"At the shortest, then, the theory of the Magi may be sum- 
med up thus. When, as we think, fire is spotted over all the 
world, as we have said, it is we who make the mistake, necessi- 
tated in our man's nature, and we are that which is spotted over 
it; — just as, while we think we move, we are moved; and we 
conclude the senses in us, while we are in the senses : everything 
— out of the world — being the very opposite of that which we 
take it. The views of these mighty thinkers amounted to the 
suppression of human reason, and the institution of Magic, or 
God -head, as all. It will be seen at once that this knowledge 
was possible but for the very few. It is only fit for men when 
they seek to pass out of the world, and to approach — the nearest 
according to their natures — God. 

"The hollow world in which that essence of things, called 
Fire, plays, in its escape, in violent agitation — to us, combustion, 
— is deep down inside of us:* that is, deep-sunk inside of the 
time-stages of which rings of being (subsidences of spirit) we 
are, in the flesh, — that is, in the human show of things, — in the 
outer. It is exceedingly difficult through language, to make this 



*See "Divine Alchemy. 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 127 

idea intelligible; but it is the real Mystic dogma of the ancient 
Guebres, or the Fire-Believers. 

"What is explosion? It is the lancing into the layers of 
worlds, whereinto we force, through turning the edges out and 
driving through; in surprisal of the reluctant, lazy, and secret 
nature, exposing the hidden, magically microscopical stores of 
things, passing inwards out of the accumulated rings of worlds 
out of the (within) supernaturally buried wealth, rolled in, of 
the past, in the procession of Being. What is smoke but the 
disrupted vapor- world to the started soul-fire? The truth is, 
say the Fire-Philosophers, in the rousing of fire we suddenly 
come upon Nature, and start her violently out of her ambush of 
things, evoking her secretest and immortal face to us. There- 
fore is this knowledge not to be known generally to man; and it 
is to be assumed at the safest in the disbelief of it: that disbe- 
lief being the magic casket in which it is locked. The keys 
are only for the Gods, or for godlike spirits. 

"We imagine it will be said that it is impossible any re- 
ligionists could have seriously entertained such extraordinary 
doctrines; but, incredible as it may seem, — because it requires 
much preparation to understand them, — it is certainly true; it 
is only in this manner the ideas of the Divinity of Fire, which 
we know once prevailed largely, can be made intelligible, — we 
mean to the philosopher, who knows how properly to value the 
ancient Thinkers, who were as giants in the earth. 

"Obelisks, spires, minarets, tall towers, upright stones 
(Menhits), monumental crosses, and architectural perpendicu- 
lars of every description, and, generally speaking, all erections 
conspicuous for height and slimness, were representatives of the 
sworded, or of the pyramidal, Fire. They bespoke, wherever 
found, and in whatever age, the idea of the First Principle, or 
the male generation Emblem.* 



*§ee "Divine Alchemy." 



128 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

"Having given, as we hope, some new views of the doctrine 
of Universal Fire, and shown that there has been error in 
imagining that the Persians and the Ancient Fire-Worshippers 
wife idolaters, inasmuch &§, in bowing down before it, they only 
regarded Fire as a Symbol, Or Visible Sign, or thing placed as 
itanding for the Dieiy, — having, in our preceding lines, dis- 
pcefcd the mind of the reader to consider as a matter of solem- 
nity, and of much greater general significance, this strange fast of 
Fire- Worship, and endeavored to show it as a portentous, first, 
all-embracing as all-genuine principle,— we will proceed to ex- 
emplify the wide-spread roots of the Fire-Faith. In fact, we 
geeffl to recognize it everywhere. 

"Instead of, in their superstition, making fire their God, 
they obtained Him— that is, all that we can realize of Him; by 
Which we mean, ail that the human reason can find of the Last 
Principle — out of it. Already in their thoughts, had the Magi 
exhausted all possible theologies; already had they, in their 
great wisdom, searched through physics — their power to this end 
being much greater than that of the modern faith-teachers and 
doctors; already, in their reveries, in their observations (deep 
within their deep souls) upon the nature of themselves, and of 
the microcosm of a world in which they found themselves, had 
the Magi transcended. I hey had arrived at a new world in 
their speculations and deductions upon facts, upon all the things 
behind which (to men) make these facts. Already, in their de- 
termined climbing into the heights of thought, and these Titans 
vi m : nd achieved, past the cosmical, through the shadowy bor- 
ders of Real and Unreal, into Magean power. 

"Passing through the mind-worlds, and coming out, as we 
may figure it, at the other side, penetrating into the secrets of 
things, they evaporated all Powers, and resolved them finally into 
the Last Fire. Beyond this, they found nothing, as into this 
they resolved all things. And then, on the Throne of the Visi- 
ble, they placed this — in the world Invisible — Fire: the sense 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 129 

thing to be worshipped in the senses, as the last thing of them, 
and the king of them, — that is, that which we know as the 
phenomenon, Burning Fire, — the Spiritual Fire being inpalpa- 
ble, as having the visible only for its shadow; the Ghostly Fire 
not being even to be thought upon; though being its medium of 
apprehension when itself had slipped; the waves of apprehen- 
sion of it only flowing back when it — being intuitive — had van- 
ished. We only know that a thought is in us when the thought 
is off the object and in us : another thought being, at that simul- 
taneous instant, in the object, to be taken up by us only when the 
first has gone out of us, and so on; but not before to be taken up 
by us, — that thought being all of us, and a deceptive and unreal 
thing to pass at all to us through the reason, and there being 
no resemblance between it and its original; the true thing being 
"Inspiration," or "God in us," excluding all matter or reason, 
which is only built up of matter. It is most difficult to frame 
language in regard to those things. Reason can only inmake 
God; He is only possible in His own development, or in His 
seizing of us, and "in possession." Thus Paracelsus and his 
disciples declare the Human Reason become our master, that is, 
in its perfection, — but not use as our servant, — transforms, as it 
were into the Devil, and exercises his office in leading us away 
from the throne of Spiritual Light — over, and, in the world, 
seeming better; in his false and deluding World-Light, or Mat- 
ter-Light, really showing himself God. This view of the Human 
Reason, intellectually trusted, transforming into the Angel of 
Darkness, and effacing God out of the world, is borne out by a 
thousand Texts of Scripture. It is equally in the beliefs and in 
the traditions of all nations and of all times, as we shall event- 
ually show. Real Light is God's Shadow, or the soul of matter; 
the one is the very brighter, as the other is the very blacker. 
Thus, the worshippers of the Sun, or Light, or Fire, — otherwise 
they would have worshipped the Devil, he being all conceivable 
Light: but rather they adored the Unknown Great God, in the 
last image that was possible to man of anything — the Fire. 



130 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

And they chose that as His shadow, as the very opposite of 
that which He really was: honouring the Master through His 
Servant; bowing before the manifestation, Eldest of Time, for 
the Timeless; paying homage to the spirit of the Devil-World, 
or rather to Beginning and End, on which was the foot of ALL, 
that the All, or the LAST, might be worshipped; propitiating 
the Evil Principle in its finite shows, because (as they that alone 
a world could be made, whose making is alone Comparison) it 
was permitted as a means of God, and therefore the operation 
of God Downwards, as part of Him, though Upwards dissipat- 
ing as before Him, — before HIM in whose presence Evil, or 
Comparison, or Difference, or Time, or Space, or anything, 
should be Impossible : real God being not to be thought upon. 

"But it was not only in the quickening Spirit of Divinity that 
these teachings could be seen. Otherwise than in faith, we can 
hope that they shall now — in our weak attempts to explain them 
— be gathered as not contradictory, and merely intellectual, but 
seen as vital and absolute. They need the elevation of the 
mind in the sense of "Inspiration/' and not the quickening and 
sharpening of the Intellect, as seeking wings — devil-pinions — 
wherewith to sail into the region only of its own laws, where, of 
course, it will not find God. Then step in the mathematics, 
then the senses, then the reason, — then the very perfection of 
matter- work, or this world's work, sets in, — engines of which 
the Satanic Powers shall realize. The evil Spirit conjures, 
as even by holy command, the translucent sky. The Arch- 
angelic, clear, child-like rendering-up in intuitive belief, — 
intense in its own sun— is Faith. Lucifer fills the scope of be- 
lief with imitative, dazzling clouds, and builds splendours. With 
these temptations it is sought to dissuade, sought to rival, 
sought to put out Saints' sight — sought even to surpass in seem- 
ing a farther and truer, because a more solid and a more sensi- 
ble, glory. The apostate, real-born Lucifer, is so named as the 
intensest Spirit of Light, because he is of the things that perish, 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 131 

and of the things that to Mind — because they are all of Matter — 
have the most of glory! Thus is one of the names of the Devil, 
the very eldest-born and brightest Star of Light, that of the 
very morning and beginning of all things — the clearest, bright- 
est, purest, as being soul-like, of Nature; but only of Nature. 
Real Law, or Nature, is the Devil ; real Reason is the Devil. 

"Now we shall find, with a little patience, that this trans- 
cendental, beyond-limit-or-knowledge ancient belief of the Fire- 
God is to be laid hand upon — as, in a manner, we shall say — in 
all the stories (and they, indeed, are all) where belief has grown, 
—yea, as a thing with the trees and plants, as out of the very 
ground, — in all the countries and continents — and in -both 
worlds. And out of this great fact of its universal dissipation, 
as a matter of history the most innate and coexistent, shall we 
not assume this Fire-Doctrine as being the truth? As a thing 
really, fundamentally, and virtually and vitally true ? As in the 
East, so in the West; as in the old time, so in the new; as in the 
pre-Adamite and post-diluvian worlds, so in the modern and 
latter-day world; surviving through the ages, buried in the 
foundations of empires, locked in the rocks, hoarded in legends, 
maintained in monuments, preserved in beliefs, suggested in 
traditions, borne amidst the roads of the multitudes in emblems, 
gathered up — as the recurring, unremarked, super-naturally 
coruscant, and yet secret, evading, encusted, and dishonored 
jewel — in rites, spoken (to those capable of the comprehension) 
in the field of hieroglyphics, dimly glowing up to a fitful sus- 
picion of it in the sacred rites of all peoples; figured forth in 
the religions, symbolized in a hundred ways: attested, prenoted, 
bodied forth in occult body, as far as body can; — in fine, in 
multitudinous fashions and forms forcibly soliciting the sharp- 
ness of sight directed to its discovery, and spilt over a floor as 
underplacing all things, we recognize, we spy, we descry, and we 
may, lastly admit the mysterious sacredness of Fire. Why 
should we not admit it? 



GODHOOD 

"Philosophy brings life. She is beautiful — she carries a 
cup in her hand — it is of gold; she begs you to drink and live. 
She is your handmaiden — Philosophy — the cup is pure metal — 
the drink is ELIXIR — LIFE. As man, you are mortal; you 
have stood in the sunshine so long you are blind. As man, you 
are drunk with a drop of pure life; you have listened so long to 
the seas that you are deaf. Philosophy brings you the cup and 
you drink, and you open your eyes ; she waits and you listen and 
hear. 

"You burn with desire and you thrill; then dip in the blood 
of yourself and write on the parchment a scroll, and read in the 
letters the words, in the words the command, in the command 
the design, in the design the beginning and the end; living you 
read, and reading you live, ceasing to be mortal, but soar as a 
God" 

"If ever the Bush is on fire hearken for the Voice and hear. 
Something is speaking — listen and listen — Something is shining 
— The Bush is on Fire." "Divine Alchemy." 



Monuments Raised to Fire 
Worship in all Countries 

In the succeeding pages we believe we will be able to show, 
beyond successful contradiction, an extraordinary discovery. It 
is that the whole round of disputed emblems which so puzzle 
antiquaries, and which are found in all countries, point to the 
belief in Fire as the First Principle. We seek to show that Fire- 
Worship was the very earliest, from the immemorial times, — 
that it was the foundation religion, — that the attestation to it is 
preserved in monuments scattered all over the globe, — that the 
rites and usages of all creeds, down even to our own day, and in 
every-day use about us, bear reference to it, — that problems and 
puzzles in religion, which cannot be otherwise explained, stand 
clear and evident when regarded in this new light, — that in all 
the Christian varieties of belief — as truly as in Bhuddism, in 
Mohammedanism, in Heathenism of all kinds, whether eastern, 
or western, or northern, or southern— this "Mystery of Fire" 
stands ever general, recurring, and conspicuous, — and that in 
being so, beyond all measure, old, and so, beyond all modern. 
or any idea of it, general, — as nearly universal, in fact, as man 
himself, and the thoughts of man, — and as being that beyond 
which, in science and in natural philosophy, we cannot farther 
go, — it must carry truth with it, however difficult to comprehend, 
and however unsuspected: that is; as really being the manifesta- 
tion and Spirit of God, and — to the confounding and annihila- 
tion of Atheism — Revelation. 

"Affirmatively we shall now, therefore, offer to the attention 
of the reader the universal scattering of the Fire-Monuments, 
taking up at the outset certain positions about them. 



134 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

"Narrowly considered, it will be found that all religions 
transcend up into this spiritual Fire-Floor, on which, to speak 
metaphysically, the phases of Time were laid. Material Fire, 
which is the brighter as the matter of which it is constituted is 
blacker, is the shadow (so to express, or to speak, necessarily 
with "words," which have no meaning in the spirit) of the 
"Spirit-Light," which invests itself in it as the mask in which 
alone it can be possible. Thus, material light being the very 
opposite of God, the Egyptians — who were undoubtedly ac- 
quainted with the Fire-Revelation — could not represent God as 
light. They therefore expressed their Idea of Deity by Dark- 
ness. Their chief adoration was paid to darkness. They bodied 
the Eternal forth under Darkness. 

"Stones were set up by the Patriarchs: the Bible records 
them. In India, the first objects of worship were Monoliths. 
In the two peninsulas of India, in Ceylon, in Persia, in the 
Holy Land, in Phoenicia, in Saramathia, in Scythia, every- 
where where worship was attempted (and in what place where 
man exists is it not?), everywhere where worship was practiced 
(and where, out of fear, did not, first, come the Gods, and then 
their propitiation?) — in all the countries, we repeat, as the earli- 
est of man's work, we recognize this sublime, mysteriously 
speaking, ever-recurring monolith, marking up the tradition of 
the supernaturally real, and only real, Fire-dogma. Buried so 
far down in time, the suspicion assents that there must somehow 
be truth in the foundation; not fanciful, legendary, in philo- 
sophical creed-truth, inexplainable (and only to be admitted 
without question) truth: but truth, however mysterious and awe- 
ing, yet cogent, and not to be of philosophy (that is, illumina- 
tion) denied. 

"The death and descent of Balder into the Hell of the 
Scandinavians may be supposed to be the purgatory of the 
Human Unit (or the God-illuminate), from the Light (through 
the God-dark phases of being), back into its native Light. 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 135 

Balder was the Scandinavian Sun-God, and the same as the 
Egyptian Osiris, the Greek Hercules, Bacchus, and Phoebus, or 
Apollo, the Indian Krishna, the Persian Mithras, the Aten of 
the Empires of Insular Asia; or, even of the Sidonians, the 
Athyr or Ashtaroth. The presence of all these divinities — 
indeed, of all Gods — were of the semblance of Fire; and we 
recognize, as it were, the mark of the foot of them, or of the 
Impersonated Fire, in the countless uprights, left, as memorials, 
in the great ebb of the ages (as waves) to nations in the later 
divisions of that great roll of periods called Time : yet to totally 
unguessing of the preternatural mystery — seeming the key of 
all belief, and the reading of all wonders — which they speak. 

"It is to be noted that all the above religions — all the 
Creeds of Fire — were exceedingly similar in their nature; that 
they all were fortified by rites, and fenced around with ceremon- 
ies; and associated as they were with mysteries and initiations, 
the disciple was led through the knowledge of them in stages, 
as his powers augmented and his eyes saw, until, towards the 
last grades (as if he himself grew capable and illuminate), the 
door was closed upon all after-pressing and unrecognized 
inquirers, and the Admitted One was himself lost sight of. 

"There was a great wave to the westward of all knowledge, 
all cultivation of the arts, all tradition, all intellect, all civiliza- 
tion, all religious belief. The world was peopled westward. 
There seems some secret, divine impress upon the world's 
destinies — and, indeed, ingrained in cosmical matter — in these 
matters. All faiths seem to have diverged out, the narrower or 
the wider, as rays from the great central Sun of this tradition 
of the Fire-Original. It would seem that Noah, who is sus- 
pected to be the Fo, Foh, or Fohi, of the Chinese, carried it 
into the farthest Cathray of the middle ages. What is the 
Chinese Tien, or Earliest Fire? The pagodas of the Chinese 
(which name, Pagoda, was borrowed from the Indian; from 
which country of India, indeed, probably came into China its 



il 



136 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

worship, and its Bhuddist doctrine of the exhaustion back into 
the divine light, or unparticled nothingness, of all the stages of 
being or of Evil), — the Chinese pagodas, we repeat, are nothing 
but innumerable gilt and belled fanciful repetitions of the 
primeval monolith. The Fire, or Light, is still worshipped in 
the Chinese temples; it has not been perceived that, in the very 
form of the Chinese Pagodas, the fundamental article of the 
Chinese religion — transmigration, through stages of being, out 
into nothingness of this world — has been architecturally em- 
blemed in the diminishing stories, carried upwards, and fining 
away into the series of unaccountable discs struck through a 
vertical rod, until all culminates, and — as it were, to speak 
heraldically of it — the last achievement is blazoned in the 
gilded ball, which means the final, or Bhuddist, glorifying 
absorption. Buildings have always telegraphed the Insignia of 
the mythologies; and, in China, the fantastic speaks the sub- 
lime. We recognize the same embodied Mythos in all archi- 
tectural spiring or artistic diminution, whether tapering to the 
globe or exaltation of the Egyptian Uraeus, or the disc, or the 
Sidonian crescent, or the lunar horns, or the Acroterium of the 
Greek temple, or the pediment of the classic Pronaos itself 
(crowning, how grandly and suggestively, at solemn dawn, or 
in the "spirit-lustres" of the dimming and still more than dawn, 
solemn twilight, the top of some mountain, an ancient of the 
days). Here besetting us at every turn, meet we the same 
mystic emblem; again, in the crescent of the Mohammedan 
fanes, surmounting even the Latin, and therefore the once 
Christian St. Sophia. Last, and not least, the countless 
"churches" rise, in the Latter-Day Dispensation, sublimely to 
the universal signal, . in the glorifying, or top, or crowning 
Cross: last of the Revelation! 

"In the fire-towers of the Sikls, in the dome-covered and 
many-storied spires of the Hindoos, in the vertically turreted 
and longitudinally massed temples of the Bhudds, of all the 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 137 

classes and of all the sects in the religious building of the 
Cingalese, in the upright flame-fanes of the Parsers, in the 
original of the Campaniles of the Italians, in the tower of St. 
Mark at Venice, the flame-shaped or pyramidal (Pyr is the 
Greek for Fire) architecture of the Egyptians (which is the 
parent of all that is called architecture), we see the recurring 
symbol. All the minarets that, in the eastern sunshine, glisten 
through the Land of the Moslem; indeed, his two-horned cres- 
cent, equally with the moon, or disc, or two-pointed globe of 
the Sidonian Ashtaroth (after whose forbidden worship Solo- 
mon, the wisest of mankind, in his defection from the God of 
his fathers, evilly thirsted) ; also, the mystic discus, or "round," 
of the Egyptians, so continually repeated, and set, as it were, 
as the forehead-mark upon all the temples of the land of sooth- 
sayers and sorcerers, — this Egypt so profound in its philoso- 
phies, in its wisdom, in its magic-seeing, and in its religion, 
raising out of the black Abyss a God to shadow it, all the 
minarets of the Mohammedan, we say, together with all the 
other symbols of moon or disc, or wings, or of horns (equally 
with the shadowy and preternatural beings in all mythologies 
and in all theologies, to which these adjuncts or Insignia are 
referred, and which are symbolized by them), — all these monu- 
ments, or bodied meanings, testify to the Deification of Fire. 

"What may mean that "Tower of Babel" and its impious 
raising, when it sought, even past and over the clouds, to imply 
a daring sign ? What portent Was that betrayal of a knowledge 
not for man, — that surmise forbidden save in infinite humility, 
and in the whispered impartment of the further and seemingly 
more impossible, and still more greatly mystical, meanings? 
In utter abnegation of self alone shall the mystery of fire be 
conceived. Of what was this Tower Belus, or the Fire, to be 
the monument? When it soared, as a Pharos, on the rock of 
the traditionary ages, to defy time in its commitment, to "form" 
of the unpronounceable secret, — stage on stage and story on 



138 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

story, though it climbed the clouds, and on its top should shine 
the ever-burning Fire, — first idol in the world, "dark save 
with neglected stars," — what was the Tower of Babel but a 
gigantic monolith? Perhaps to record and to perpetuate this 
ground-fire of all; to be worshipped, in idol, in its visible form, 
when it should be alone taken as the invisible thoughts fire 
to be waited for (spirit possession), not waited on (idolatry.) 
Therefore was the speech confounded, that the thing should not 
be; therefore, under the myth of climbing into heaven by the 
means of it, was the first colossal monolithic temple (in which 
the early dwellers upon the earth sought to enshrine the Fire) 
laid prostrate in the thunder of the Great God. And the 
languages were confounded from that day, — speech was made 
babble — thence its name, — that the secret should remain a 
secret. It was to be only darkly hinted, and to be fitfully dis- 
closed, like a false-showing light, in the theosophic glimmer, 
amidst the world's knowledge-lights. It was to reappear, like 
a spirit, to the "initiate," in the glimpse of reverie, in the 
snatches of sight, in the profoyndest wisdom, through the studies 
of all ages. 

"We find, in the religious administration of the ancient 
world, the most abundant proofs of the secret fire-tradition. 
Schweigger shows, in his "Introduction into Mythology" (pp. 
132, 228), that the Phoenician Cabiri and the Greek Dioscuir, 
the Curetes, Corybantes, Telchini, were originally of the same 
nature, and are only different in trifling particulars. All these 
symbols represent electric and magnetic phenomena, and that 
under the ancient name of twin-fires, hermaphrodite fire. The 
Diescuri is a phrase equivalent to the Sons of Heaven: if, as 
Herodotus asserts, "Zeus originally represented the whole circle 
of Heaven." 

"From India into Egypt was imported this Spiritual Fire- 
Belief. We recognize, again, its never-failing structure-signal. 
Rightly regarded, the great Pyramids are nothing but the 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 139 

world-enduring architectural attestation, following (in the 
pyramidal) the well-known leading law of Egypt's templar 
piling mound-like, spiry — of the Universal Flame-Faith. 
Place a light upon the summit, star-like upon the sky, and a 
prodigious altar the mighty Pyramid then becomes. In this 
tribute to the world-filling faith, burneth expressed devotion to 
(radiateth acknowledgement of) the immortal magic religion. 
There is little doubt that as token and emblem of Fire-worship, 
as indicative of the adoration of the real, accepted Deity, these 
Pyramids were raised.* The idea that they were burial places 
of the Egyptian monarchs is untenable when submitted to the 
weighing of meanings, and when it comes side by side with this 
better fire-explanation. Cannot we accept these Pyramids as 
the vast altars on whose top should burn the flame — commem- 
orative, as it were, to all the world? Cannot we see in these 
piles, literally and really Transcendental in original, the Egyp- 
tian reproduction, and a hieroglyphical signalling on, of special 
truth, eldest of time? Do we not recognize in the Pyramid the 
repetition of the first monolith? — all the uprights constituting 
the grand attesting pillar to the super-natural traditions to a 
Fire-Born World? 

The ever-recurring Globe with Wings, Symbol of the Soul 
so frequent in the sculptures of the Egyptians, witness to the 
Electric Principle. It embodies the transmigration of the 
Indians, reproduced by Pythagoras. Pythagoras resided for a 
long period in Egypt, and acquired from the priests the philo- 
sophic "transition" — knowledge, which was afterwards doctrine. 
The globe, disc, or circle, of the Phoenician Astarte, the cres- 
cent of Minerva, the horns of the Egyptian Amnion, the deify- 
ing of the ox, — all have the same meaning. W T e trace, among 
the Hebrews, the token of the identical mystery in the horns of 
Moses, distinct in the sublime statue by Michael Angelo in the 



*See "Ancient [Mystic Oriental Masonry.-' 



140 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

Vatican ; as also in the horns of the Levitical altar : indeed, the 
use of the "double Hieroglyph" in continental ways. The 
volutes of the Ionic column, the twin stars of Castor and Pollux, 
nay, generally, the employment of the double emblem all the 
world over, in ancient or in modern times, whether displayed 
as points, or radii, or wings, on the helmets of those barbarian 
chiefs who made war upon Rome, Attila, or Genseric, or 
broadly shown upon the head-piece of the Frankish Clovis; 
whether emblemed in the rude and, as it were, savagely, mystic 
horns of the Asiatic Idols, or reproduced in the horns of the 
Runic Hammerer (or Destroyer), or those of the Gothic Mars, 
or of the modern Devil — All this double-spreading from a com- 
mon point (or this figure of HORNS) speaks the same story. 

"The Colossus of Rhodes was a monolith in the human 
form dedicated to the Sun, or the Fire, The Pharos of Alex- 
andria was a fire-monument. Heliopolis, or the City of the 
Sun, in Lower Egypt (as the name signifies), contained a 
temple, wherein, combined with all the dark superstitions of the 
Egyptians, the flame-secret was preserved. In most jealous 
secrecy was the tradition guarded, and the symbol alone was 
presented to the world. Of the Pyramids, as prodigious Fire- 
Monuments, we have before spoken. Magnificent as the princi- 
pal Pyramid still is, it is stated by an ancient historian that 
it originally formed, at the base, "a square of eight hundred 
feet, and that it was eight hundred feet high." Another informs 
that "three hundred and sixty-six thousand men were employed 
twenty years in its erection." Its height is now supposed to be 
six hundred feet. Have historians and antiquaries carefully 
weighed the fact (even in the name of the Pyramids), that Pyr, 
or Pur, in the Greek, means Fire? We would argue that that 
object, in the Great Pyramid, which has been mistaken for a 
tomb (and which is, moreover, rather fashioned like an altar, 
smooth and plain, without any carved work), is, in reality, the 
vase, urn, or depository, of the sacred, ever-burning Fires of 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 141 

the existence which ever-living, inextinguishable fire, to be 
found at some period of the world's history, there is abundant 
tradition. This view is fortified by the statements of Diodorus, 
who writes that "Cheops, or Chemis, who founded the principal 
Pyramid, and Chephren, or Cepherenus, who built the next to 
it, were neither buried here, but that they were deposited else- 
where. 

"It is evident from their hieroglyphics that the Egyptians 
were acquainted with the wonders of magnetism. By means 
of it (and by the secret power which lie in the hyper-sensual, 
"heaped floors" of it), out of the every-day senses, the Egyp- 
tians struck together, as it were, a bridge, across which they 
paraded into the supernatural, the Magic portals receiving 
them as on the other and armed side of a drawbridge, shaking 
in its raising (or in its lowering), as out of flesh. Athwart this, 
in Trances, swept the Adepts, leaving their mortality behind 
them. All, and their earth-surroundings, to be resumed at their 
reissue upon the plains of life, when down in their humanity 
again. 

"In the cities of the ancient world, the Palladium, or Pro- 
testing Talisman (invariably set up in the chief square of 
place), was — there is but little doubt — the reiteration of the 
very earliest monolith. All the obelisks, — each often a single 
stone, of prodigious weight, — all the singular, solitary, wonder- 
ful pillars and monuments of Egypt, as of other lands, are, as 
it were, only tombstones of the Fire! All testify to the great, 
so darkly hinted secret. In Troy was the image of Pallas, the 
myth of knowledge, of the world, of manifestation, of the Fire. 
Soul. In Athens was Pallas-Athene, or Minerva. In the Greek 
cities, the form of the deity changed variously to Bacchus, to 
Hercules, to Phcebus-Apollo ; to the tri-formed Minerva, Dian, 
and Hecate; to the dusky Ceres, or the darker Cybele. In the 
wilds of Sarmathia, in the wastes of Northern Asia, the lumin- 
ous rays descended from heaven, and, animating the Lama, or 



142 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRfi 

"Light-Bom," spoke the same story. The flames of the Greeks, 
the towers of the Phoenicians, the emblems of the Pelasgi; the 
Itory of Prometheus, and the myth of his stealing the fire from 
Heaven, wherewith to animate the man (or enSoul the visible 
world) ; the forges of the Cyclops, and the monuments of Sicily; 
the' illysteries of th§ Etrurians; the rites of the Carthaginians; 
the torches borne, in ail priestly demonstrative processions, at 
all times, in all countries; the Vestal Fires of the Romans, the 
Very wofd Plamen, as indicative of the office of the officiating 
sacerdote; trig hiddefl firii of the ancient Persians, and thw 
grimmer (at least in name) Guebres; the whole Mystic meaning 
of flames on altars, of the ever-burning tomb-lights of the 
earlier peoples, whether in the classic or in the barbarian 
lands, — everything of this kind was intended to signify the 
deified Fire ; Fires are lighted in the funeral ceremonies oi 
the Hindoos and of the Mohammedans, even to this day, though 
the body be Committed whole to earth. Wherefore fire, then? 
Cremation and urn-burial, or the burning of the dead — prac- 
ticed in all ages — imply a profounder meaning than is generally 
supposed. They point to the transmigration of Pythagoras, or 
to the purgatorial reproductions of the Indians, among whom 
we the earliest find the dogma. The real signification of fire- 
burial is the commitment of human mortality into the last-of-all 
matter, overleaping the intermediate state; or the delivering 
over of the man-unit into the Flame-Soul, past all intervening 
spheres or stages of the purgatorial; the absolute doctrine of 
the Bhudds, taught, even at this day, among the Initiates all 
over the East. Thus we see how classic practice and heathen 
teaching may be made to reconcile, — how even the Gentile and 
the Hebrew, the mytho — logical and the (so-called) Christian, 
doctrine harmonize in the general faith — founded in Magic, 
That Magic is indeed possible is the moral of our work. 

"We find, therefore, in the earliest ages, an AEther (spirit- 
ual fire) theory, by which many modern theorists endeavor to 



.___.-. — ,, ; gggagggjagBsagaaaBS ~'X~. Baft. 

PHILOSOPHY t)F FIRE 143 



explain the phenomena of magnetism. This is the "AEth- 
eraem*" One of the Fundamental doctrines of The AEth 
Priesthood; and the development of the AEther, or AEth Fire 
is part of the training. 

"Fire, indeed, would appear" to have been the chosen ele- 
ment of God, In the form of a flaming "bush" He appeared 
to Moses on Mount Sinai. His presence wai denoted by tor- 
rents of flame, and in the form of fire He preceded the band of 
Israelites by night through the dreary wilderness; which is per- 
haps the origin of the present custom of the Arabians > "whs 
always carry fire in front of their caravans.'' — (Reade's Veil 
of I sis). All the early fathers held God the Creator to consist 
of a "subtle fire," When the Holy Spirit descended upon the 
Apostles on the Day of Pentecost, it was in the form of a tongue 
of fire, accompanied by a rushing wind, 

"The personality of Jehovah is, in Scripture, represented 
by the Material Trinity of Nature^ which also, like the Divine 
antitype, is of one substance. The primal, scriptural type of 
the Father is Fire; of the Word, Light; and of the Holy Ghost, 
Spirit, or Air in motion. Holy fires, which were never suffered 
to die, were maintained in all the temples: of these were the 
fires in the Temple of the Gaditanean Hercules at Tyre, in the 
Temple of Vesta at Rome, among the Brahmans of India, 
among the Jews, and principally among the Persians. 

"As soon as Jesus was born, according to the Gnostic 
speculative view of Christianity, Christos, uniting himself with 
Sophia (Holy Wisdom), descended through the seven planetary 
regions, assuming in each an analogous form to the region, and 
concealing his true nature from its genii whilst he attracted 
into himself the sparks of Divine Light they severally retained 
in their angelic essence. Thus Christos, having passed through 



*One of the Fundamental doctrines of The AEth Priesthood; and 
the development of the AEther, or AEth Fire is part of the. training. 



144 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

the seven Angelic Regions before the "Throne," entered into 
the man Jesus, at the moment of his baptism in the Jordan. 
From that time forth, being supernaturally gifted, Jesus began 
to work miracles. Before that, he had been completely ignorant 
of his mission. When on the cross, Christos and Sophia left 
his body, and returned to their own sphere. Upon his death, 
the two took the man "Jesus," and abandoned his material body 
to the earth; for the Gnostics held that the true Jesus did not 
(and could not) physically suffer on the cross and die, but that 
Simon of Cyrene, who bore his cross, did in reality suffer in 
him room: "And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed 
by, coming cut of the country, the father of Alexandria and 
Rufus, to bear his cross." (St. Mark xv: 21). 

"At the point of the miraculous transference of persons, 
Christos and Sophia (the Divine) left his body, and returned 
to their own heaven. Upon his death on earth, the two with- 
drew the "Being" Jesus (spiritually), and gave him another 
body, made up of Ether (Rosicrucian AEtheraeum). Thence 
forward he consisted of the two Roscrucian principles only, Soul 
and spirit; which was the reason the disciples did not recognize 
him after the resurrection. During his sojourn upon earth 
eighteen months after he had risen, he received from Sophia 
(Soph, Suph), or Holy Wisdom, that perfect knowledge or 
illumination, that true "Gnosis," which he communicated to 
the small number of the Apostles who were capable of receiving 
the same. 

"As the Son of God remained unknown to the world, so 
must the disciple of Basilides also remain unknown to the rest 
of mankind. As they know all this, and yet must live amongst 
strangers, they must conduct themselves towards the rest of the 
world as invisible and unknown. Hence our motto, "Learn to 
know all, but keep thyself unknown." ..(Irenaeus.) 

"Though fire is an element in which everything inheres, 
and of which it is the life, still, according to the Rosicrucian 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 145 

idea, it is itself another element, in a second non-terrestrial ele- 
ment, or inner, non-physical, ethereal fire, in which the first 
coarse fire, so to speak, flickers, waves, brandishes, and spreads, 
floating — like a liquid — now here, now there. The first is the 
natural, material, gross fire, with which we are familiar, con- 
tained in a celestial, unparticled, and surrounding medium (or 
celestial fire), which is its Matrix, and of which, in this human 
body, we can know nothing.* 

"Ptha is the emblem of the Eternal Spirit from which 
everything is created. The Egyptians represented it as a pure 
ethereal fire which burns forever, whose radiance is raised far 
above the planets and stars. In early ages, the Egyptians wor- 
shipped this highest being under the name of Athor. He was 
the Lord of the Universe. The Greeks transformed Athor into 
Venus, who was looked upon by them in the same light as 
Athor. "According to the Egyptians," says Jablonski, "Matter 
has always been connected with the mind. The Egyptian 
priests also maintained that the gods appeared to man, and that 
spirits communicated with the human race." The Souls of 
men are, according to the oldest Egyptian doctrine, formed of 
Ether, and at death return again to it." 

"The saffron robe of Hymen is of the color of the Flame 
of Fire. The Bride, in ancient days, was covered with a veil 
called the "Flammeun;" unless made under this, no vow was 
considered sacred. The ancient swore, not by the altar, but by 
the flame of fire which was upon the altar. Yellow, or Flame- 
colored, was the color of. the Ghebers, or Guebres, or Fire- 
Worshippers. The Persian lilies are yellow; and here will be 
remarked a connection between this fact of the yellow of the 
Persian lilies and the Mystic symbols in various parts. Mystic 
rites, and the symbolical lights which mean the Divinity of Fire, 



*See "Divine Alchemy." 



146 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

abound at Candlemasday (February 2nd), or the Feast of 
Purification; in the torches borne at weddings, and in the typi- 
cal flame-brandishing at marriage ove*r almost all the world; in 
the illumination at feasts; in the lights on, and set about the 
Christian altar; at the festival of the Holy Nativity; in the 
ceremonies at preliminary espousals; in the Bale, or Baal, fires 
on the summits of the mountains; in the watch-lights, or votive 
sanctuary-lights, in the hermitage in the lowest valley; in the 
Chapelle Ardent e, in the Romish funeral observances, with its 
abundance of silent, touching lights around the splendid Cata- 
falque, or twinkling, pale and ineffectual, singly at the side of 
the death-bed in the cottage of the peasant. Starry lights and 
innumerable torches at the stately funeral, or at any pompous 
celebration, mean the same. In short, light all over the world, 
when applied to religious rites, and to ceremonial, whether in 
the ancient or in the modern times, bespeaks the same origin, 
and struggles to express the same meaning, which is Parseeism, 
perseism, or the worship of the Deified fire, disguised in many 
theological forms. It will, we trust, never be supposed that 
we mean, in this material fire, but only the inexpressible some- 
thing of which fire, or rather its flower or glory (bright Light), 
is the farthest off — because, in being visible at all, it is the 
grossest and most inadequate image. 

"The Rosicrucians maintain that, all things visible and 
invisible having been produced by the contention of light with 
darkness, the earth has denseness in its innumerable heavy con- 
comitants downwards, and they contain less and less of the 
original Divine Light as they thicken and solidify the grosser 
and heavier in matter. They taught nevertheless, that every 
object, however stifled or delayed in its operation, and darkened 
and thickened in the solid blackness at the base, yet contains a 
certain possible deposit, or jewel, of light, — which light, 
although by natural process it may take ages to evolve, as light 
will tend at last by its own native, irresistible force upward 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE U7 

(when it has opportunity), can be liberated; that dead matter 
will yield this spirit in a space more or less expeditious by the 
art of the Alchemist. These are worlds within worlds, — we, 
human organisms, only living in a deceiving, or Bhuddistic, 
"dream-like phase" of the grand panorama. Unseen and unsus- 
pected (because in it lies magic), there is an Inner magnetism, 
or divine aura, or ethereal spirit, or possible eager fire, shut and 
confined, as in a prison, in the body, or in all sensible objects, 
which have more or less of spiritually sensitive life as they can 
more successfully free themselves from this ponderable, material 
obstruction. Thus all minerals, in this spark of light, have 
the rudimentary possibility of plants and growing organisms; 
thus all plants have rudimentary sensitives, which might (in 
the ages) enable them to perfect and transmute into locomotive 
new creatures, lesser or higher in their grade, no nobler or 
meaner in their functions; thus all plants and vegetables might 
pass off (by side-roads) into more distinguished highways, as 
it were, of independent, completer advance, allowing their orig- 
inal spark of light to expand and thrill with higher and more 
vivid force, and to urge forward with more abounding, informed 
purpose — all wrought by planetary influence, directed by the 
unseen spirits (or workers) of the Great Original Architect, 
building His microcosmos of a world from the plans and power 
evoked in the macrocosm, or heaven of first forms, which in 
their multitude and magnificence, are as changeable shadows 
cast off from the Central Immortal First Light, whose rays dart 
from the centre to the extremest point of the universal circum- 
ference. It is with terrestrial fire that the alchemist breaks or 
sunders the material darkness or atomic thickness, all visible 
nature yielding to his furnaces, whose scattering heat (without 
its sparks) breaks all doors of this world's kind. 

"It is with immaterial fire (or ghostly fire) that tfie Rosi- 
crucian loosens contradiction and error, and conquers the false 
knowledge and the deceiving senses which bind the human soul 



148 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

in its prison. On this side of his powers, on this dark side 
(to the world) of his character, the alchemist (rather now 
become the Rosicrucian) works in visible light, and is a 
Magean. He lays the bridge (as the Pontifex, or Bridge- 
Maker) between the world known and the world unknown; and 
across this bridge he leads the votary out of his dream of life 
into his dream of temporary death, or into extinction of the 
senses and of the powers of the senses; which world's blindness 
is the only true and veritable life, the envelope of flesh falling 
metaphorically off the now liberated fire into rhapsody, which 
is at the gate of Heaven. i 

"Now a few words as to the theory of Alchemy. The 
alchemists boasted of the powers, after their elimination and 
dispersion of the ultimate elements of bodies by fire (repre- 
sented by the absent difference of their weights before and after 
their dissolution), to recover them back out of that exterior, 
unknown world surrounding this world: which world men 
reason against as if it had no existence, when it has real exist- 
ence. It is this other world (just off this real world) into 
which the Rosicrucians say they can enter, and bring back, as 
proofs that they have been there, the old things (thought 
escaped), metamorphosed into new things. This act is trans- 
mutation. This product is Magic gold, or "fairy gold," con- 
densed as real gold. This growing gold, or self -generating and 
multiplying gold, is obtained by invisible transfutation (and in 
other light) in another world out of this world; immaterial to 
us creatures of limited faculties, but material enough, farther 
on, on the heavenly side, or on the side opposite' to our human 
side. In other words, the Rosicrucians claimed not to be bound 
by the limits of the present world, but to be able to pass into this 
next world (inaccessible only in appearance), and to be able 
to work in it, and to come back safe out of it, bringing their 
trophies with them, which were gold, obtained out of this 
master-circle, or outside elementary circle, different from ordi- 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 149 

nary life, though enclosing it ; and the elixir vitae, or the means 
of the renewal or the perpetuation of human life through this 
universal, immortal medicine, or Magisterium, which being a 
portion of the light outside, or Magic, or Breath of the Spirits, 
fleeing from man, and only to be won in the audacity of alchem- 
ical exploration, was independent of those mastered natural 
elements, or nutritions, necessary to common life. 

"The Vedas describe the Persian religion (Fire-worship) 
as having come from Upper Egypt. "The mysteries celebrated 
within the recesses of the "hypogea" (caverns or labyrinths) 
"were precisely of that character which is called Freemasonic or 
Cabiric. The signification of this latter epithet is as to written 
letters, a desideratum. Selden has missed it; so have Origen 
and Sophocles. Strabo, too, and Montfaucon, have been equally 
astray. Hyde was the only one who had any idea of its com- 
position when he declared that "it was a Persian word, some- 
what altered from Gabri, or Guebri, signifying Fire-Worship- 
pers.".. Pocoke, in his "India in Greece," is very sagacious and 
true in his arguments ; but he tells only half the story of the 
myths in his supposed successful divestment of them of all 
unexplainable character, and of exterior supernatural origin. 
He supposes that all the mystery must necessarily disappear 
when he has traced and carefully pointed out the identity and 
transference of these myths from India into Egypt and into 
Greece, and their gradual spread westward. But he is wholly 
wrong; and most other modern explainers are equally mistaken. 

"This is not an attempt to restore Superstition to its dis- 
possessed pedestal, but to replace the Super-natural upon its 
abdicated throne. Also to discover what the nature of this Fire 
should be, which seems to have been the thing earliest worship- 
ped in the world, and continued traces of which survive not only 
over all Europe, but in all other countries. Fire Philosophy is 



150 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

the foundation of all religions, it is the philosophy of the Soul, 
of Love, and of God. Without Fire there could be no existence. 
God, Love, and the Soul are all one and the same thing — the 
Living Fire. 



The Fire Philosophy of the 
Templars 

The great men and inquiring spirits among the Templars 
had penetrated to the very depth of the mystery of the ever- 
living, supernatural Fire and had taught it to their Neo- 
phytes as they themselves had been taught by the Saracens. 
It is readily believable that, at the suppression of this grand, 
warlike, and monastic Order (whose members were so bound 
by injunctions and the vows of the secret formula, that they 
could not deny part of the accusations, nor yet explain why), 
many of the things of which they were accused, such as magical 
ceremonies and so-called Pagan rites, trances and innocent 
sacrifices, etc., were satisfactorily established to those who 
wanted them to be proven guilty (in their trials), as matters of 
which they were indisputably guilty. We know they had theii 
rites and ceremonies, and that these rites and ceremonies had a 
different meaning from that interpreted by religious fanatics 
and self-constituted investigators who knew nothing of the 
Sacred Religious Practices and self-imposed penalties practiced 
by such men who lived for God and religion. 

We know there was nothing more in the denouncement 
and extinction, at the same time, all over Europe, of these 
religio-knightly or monastic-military orders — in whose ranks 
fought, and taught, men of the most powerful, and most dar- 
ing, understanding of the period — than the jealousy of their 
power, fear of their influence, and the desire for the riches and 
worldly accumulation they possessed. We further realize 
that secret and forbidden studies (as in all Fraternities) were 
pursued by them; that under the protection and yet in the 



152 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

refusal (as it seemed to the profane and religious fanatic) of 
the Cross, and as from behind their holy and militarily won- 
drous character, the Arch-leaders among them (whether chief- 
tains of mind or of arms) closely hung on the track of phil- 
osophy until it vanished into transcendentalism, or the so-called 
(because many of the current religious beliefs are no more 
accepted by them than they are at this time by the members of 
the Secret Schools) atheistic, and by Occult and Cabalistic 
means established relations with the Unseen (as we do to-day), 
seeking to hold communications with the world Invisible.* 

The round form of their Temples — as they were styled 
by the Brotherhood — their various insignia and habits, their 
secret book, their rites, all seem to bespeak a knowledge, and 
do so speak 'to the Initiate of the Fire-Philosophy — misunder- 
stood and perverted in the hands of all those except of the Order 
who had risen to the highest knowledge in it, and who attained 
leadership, into the indulgence of sensual appetites and the 
denial of the future** life, and, consequently, of the fullest and 



*This single statement made by the author, when interpreted by the 
religious fanatic of even the present day, would indicate that the writer 
upholds Spiritualism. The fact is, man, when he understands, can com- 
municate with the invisible realms of being by many other than Spir- 
itualistic means. 

The reason we are so certain such a statement might be misinter- 
preted, is because of late experiences, wherein a book written by us 
showing the difference between Spiritism and Spiritualism, has been 
produced as evidence against us to prove we upheld Spiritualism, when 
in fact we have always, and do now, condemn every system of negative 
development, no matter what its name. 

If this can be brought about in this so-called free and enlightened 
age when every man is supposed to be guaranteed freedom to practice 
his religion as he pleases, so long as such practices do not interfere with 
the liberty of others, what chance did the Templars have, who tried and 
judged by those who wanted them condemned and destroyed as heretics, 
could not, and would not deny, they were able to hold communication 
with worlds Invisible. 

**Ih the Philosophy taught by the Secret Schools we do not uphold 
the forgiveness of sins, justification by faith, and Vicarious Atonement 
as usually understood. In a recent hearing before a Court some of these 
lessons and writings, which can only be had under a religious vow, were 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 153 

morally darkest, though the most wordly luscious, Epicurean- 
ism. 

This was not the fault of the beautiful Philosophy known 
and taught by the Templars, but of those would-be followers 
who did not attempt to understand, and who had no desire to 
follow the true teachings, but instead, sought an excuse for 
their miserable outrages. 

Whilst the chiefs of the Order of the Templars had pene- 
trated to truths the most astonishing, though, necessarily, 
undivulgeable (especially in that superstitious and ignorant 
age, of which, incontestably, they were far advanced), they 
paid the usual penalty for their great knowledge in being 
decried, ending by being burnt as magicians. Simple because 
the time was not prepared — if indeed any time can be — for 
that which they could tell. They, and their whole body, there- 
fore, appeared, in the exaggerations of the Church, and in the 
magnifying medium of the terror which their doings inspired, 
as thirsting for seemingly impossible things. Climbing, as in 
their cowls and mail, as a storming ladder of presumptuously 
supposed lightning-proof steel, and under the mask and shield 
of the Cross, which they were accused of denying, into the 
imagined, accursed (according to the profane) crTambers of 
Magic, devilish Fire: the treasure house, or home, or Hell, of 
the forbidden gods, rich in all possible Ethereal and human 
splendor. The Templars did only that which we of the present 
school are doing; and, we, as they, are being accused of almost 
all of the things they were, even as "working for the 
devil, denying the Divinity of Christ, and preaching a doctrine 



produced against us by one who accused us of working for the devil and 
who had deliberately broken open private, locked cases, wherewith to 
attempt to prove we did not believe in the Divinity of Christ and a 
future life. If such things can be brought against those who admittedly 
teach a clean mode of living, a pure morality, and a high code of ethics, 
what chance would one have who actually and openly denied the possi- 
bility of life after death and the existence of a Supreme Being? 



154 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

of Free Love, all because we maintain and teach, that man 
must gain Immortality through service to mankind and purifi- 
cation of self; demanding Equal Opportunity and Justice 
to all, rich and poor alike. 

The famous Beauseant, or banner of the Templars, was 
part-colored — that is, divided down the centre, in two halves 
of ; 'black and white." This figuring- forth of the utterly 
opposed colors is generally taken to signify the immitigable 
hatred of the Templars for the Infidels, but their abiding love 
and benignity towards the Christians. This total friendship, 
or uncompromising abnegation would be heraldically denoted 
in the perfect contrast of the black and the white halves, or 
"fields," of the Templars' ensign divided parti-per-pae. But, 
when we remember that the Egyptians mythed their Perfect 
Divinity, or Cause of All, under (of this world) the hopeless, 
empty color of Black, in opposition to White, or Matter- 
Light which was taken to signify "'This World, and the 
Glory of this World;" and, when we recall that the proper 
robes, or vestments, of the Mageans, when invested in their 
Cabalistic panopy and armed for charms — as directed by the 
authentic formula — are of the colors W T hite and Black, we grow 
into another sort of belief regarding the meaning of this Temp- 
lar banner, Mystic as it is; and we conclude that it fell back, 
for its real hieroglyph, upon the Fire-Creed and Fire-Phi 
losophy — This faith of the fierce Deistical East, and of the 
Guefre, Gubh, or Gaur. And this, surely, not without reason. 
Nor did the Order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, 
who, in the grandeur of their stately galleys, made of the Medi- 
terranean a royal sea, and elevated the Islands of Malta and 
of Rhodes almost into the splendors of an empire set on the 
water; nor did this Order escape the imputation of wrong- 
doing — of being betrayed in the signs and the hieroglyph of the 
secret, reprobated, infidel doctrine. Their colors, the fashion 
of their arms, and their attire, in which — in the priestly or any 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 155 

other orders or communities — lies much of meaning, glancing 
up to justifiable Christian suspicion in the wizard, heretical 
half-light. In short, it is held that the Teutonic Knights, or 
the soldier monks of St. John of Jerusalem, as equally as the 
Templars, were very questionable Christians. Though this 
imagined infidelity might be only confined to the Heads of the 
Chapters, the great body of the Knights being merely directed. 

In the persecutions of the Knights Templars, which are 
generally known, a certain mystification and secrecy may be 
observed, as if the whole of the charges against them were not 
brought publicly. This arose from various causes. The per- 
secuted were really very religious, and were bound by the most 
solemn Masonic oaths (and Masonry was intimately connected 
with these matters) not to divulge the secrets of the Order. 
The impression is very general that these persecutions were 
undertaken for the sake of the wealth of the Order. This is 
not the only reason, there were other, and deeper reasons; hate, 
jealousy, and fear, among them. 

The so-called heathenish doctrines to which allusion has 
been made, are visible everywhere in the curious mystical 
figures always seen upon the monuments of the Templars; in 
the fishes bound together by the tails, in the tombs of Italy, 
and appearing on the vaulting of the Temple Church, London; 
in the astrological emblems on many churches, such as the 
Zodiacs on the floor of the Church of St. Irenaeus at Lyons, 
and on a church at York, and Notre Dame at Paris, and 
Bacchus, or the God I. H. S., filling the wine-cask, formerly on 
the floor of the Church of St. Denis; again, in the round 
Churches of the Templars, in imitation of the round church at 
Jerusalem, probably built by them in the Circular or Cyclar, 
or Gilgal form, in allusion to various recondite subjects, and 
in the monograms I H E and X H in thousands of places. We, 
of the present day, know these doctrines were not heathenish in 
any sense; that they had, and still have, the most wonderful 



156 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

mystical meaning; furthermore, that they figure in all true 
Initiation and in all the Philosophies. Symbolism has never 
been understood by the masses and ever a strange and abso- 
lutely false meaning will be given to these symbols and cere- 
monies by those who do not, and never can, understand them. 
Perhaps it is well this is so. 

At every turn we meet with some remnant of so-called 
Paganism. It is a rather extraordinary thing that the Christian 
Templars should call themselves Templars in honor of the 
Temple, the destruction of which all so-called Christians 
boasted of as a miraculous example of divine wrath in their 
favor as Christians. This, then, goes to prove that the Temp- 
lars are much older than the Crusaders, and the pretended 
origin of these people is totally false. There is a certain sus- 
picion entertained by scholars, not without reason, that the 
origin of this community may be looked for in the College of 
Cashi, and the Temple of Solomon in Cashmere, or the lake, 
or mere, of Cashi. The Gymnosophists, the Kasideans, the 
Essenes (through whom Jesus received his Initiation), the 
Therapeutae (later; and at present, the Rosicrucians), the 
Dionesians, the Eleusinians (followers of the Essenes), the 
Pythagoreans (who were really Rosicrucians), the Chaldeans, 
were, in reality, all an order of religionists, who combined in 
their religion both Philosophy and Mysticism; including among 
them those who were, in fact, the heads of the Societies, nor 
must it be forgotten that the Masons of the present day have 
been, time and again, termed anti-Christ, because they do not 
give Jesus any place in their precepts or ceremonies, therefore 
this modern Order is under the ban of certain religious sects, 
especially those of the Evangelical and Methodist persuasion. 

The Teutonic Knights seem to have been the first insti- 
tuted. But it is thought that they were graften upon a class of 
persons — charitable devotees — who had settled themselves, as 
the historians say, near the Temple of Jerusalem, to assist poor 



PHILOSOPHY OF tlRfe i57 

Christian pilgrims who visited it; although the real temple had 
disappeared even to the last stone, for a thousand years. This 
proves how little use these historians make of their understand- 
ing. The Teutonic Knights are said to have come from Ger- 
many, from the Teutonic tribes. Let us hasten to relieve North 
Germany from the weighty and undeserved honor. The word 
Teut is Tat, and Tat is Buddha. The name of Buddha, with 
some of the German nations, was Tuisto or Tuisco, derived 
from whose name comes our day of the week — Tuesday. From 
Tuisto, or Tuisco, came the Teutones, Teutisci, and the Teu- 
tonic Knights, and the name of Mercury Teusco. Perhaps 
Mercury Tnmiegistus. 

The round church of Jerusalem, built by Helena, the Mys- 
tic Helena (daughter of Coilus), mother of Constantine, who 
was born at York, and the chapter-house at York and other 
cathedrals were reproductions of the circular Stonehenge and 
Abury, home of the ancient Druids. The choirs of many of the 
cathedrals in France and England are built crooked of the nave 
of the church, for the same reason (whatever that might be) 
that the Druidical temple is so built at Classerniss in Scotland. 
All the round chapter-houses of our Cathedrals were so built 
for the same reason that the Church of the Templars 
were round. In these chapters and the crypts, till the thirteenth 
century, the Secret Religion, or true Fire Philosophy, was 
celebrated for away from the profane vulgar. These buildings 
have been thought to be the representative successors of the 
caves of India, and afterwards of the cupola-formed buildings 
there, of the Cyclopean Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae, and 
of the Labyrinths of which we read in Egypt, Crete, Italy, and 
other countries. These labyrinths could be only for the pur- 
pose of religious practices, and, it is not to be doubted, of that 
religion of the Cyclops which universally prevailed. The 
under-ground crypts of our cathedrals, with their forests of 
pillars, were labyrinths in miniature. There is something about 



158 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

the circular churches of the Templars which seems very remark- 
able. We have only four in England, we believe, of the 
churches of the Templars, namely: those in London, at Maple- 
stead in Essex, at Northampton, and at Cambridge — and they 
are all round. This form, we are told, was adopted in imita- 
tion of the round church at Jerusalem. But how came the 
church of Jerusalem to be round? Perhaps Phallas Worship 
had something to do with this form! We are led to believe so 
at least. Again, how came these Christian Knights to be called 
by the name of the detested Jewish Temple? 

The Templars were divided into Orders exactly after the 
system of the Assassians, Knights, Esquires; and Lay-Brethren 
answered to the Refeck, Fedavee, and Laseek of the Assassians; 
as the Prior, Grand-Prior, and Grand-Master of the former 
correspond to the Dai, Dai-Al-Kebir, and Sheik of the moun- 
tain of the latter.* 

As the Ishmaelite Refeck was clad in white, with a red 
mark of distinction, so the Knight of the Temple wore a white 
mantle, adorned with a red mark of distinction — the Red Cross. 
It is remarkable that they were called "Illuminators." And it 
is to be suspected that the red mark of distinction, kept back 
as common to both Templars and Ishmaelites, was a red eight- 
point cross, or a Red Rose on a Cross. 

The Templars were accused of worshipping a being called 
Bahumid and Bafomer (the Devil), or Kharuf, just as we, the 
Initiates of the Secret Schools have been, and now are, accused 
of working for the devil. Von Hammer says that this word, 
written in Arabic, has the meaning of "Cald," and is what 



*Unquestionably the Ansaireth of the Syrians, living round about 
the Ansaireth mountains have the most perfect doctrine of Sex and the 
Sex Fire known to any nation of the earth. Though these people might 
trace their lineage to the distant past, whence history remains unknown, 
in 1865 when Dr. P. B. Randolph visited Syria and was Initiated into 
the Mystery of the Ansaireth by the then Sheik of the Brotherhood, he 
found the doctrine untarnished by either vulgarism or debasement. 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 159 

Kichre calls Anima Mundi. It is difficult not to believe that 
this "Kharuf" is our "Calf." The assassins are said to have 
worshipped a Calf; If these latter had a Calf in use as an 
emblem, it may be justly considered as a proof, that, contrary 
to the prevailing ideas concerning them, they are a tribe of 
extreme antiquity (a branch of the Atlanteans), though holding 
the doctrine of the Ten Incarnations, yet still clings to the 
ancient worship of Taurus. There is a picture, in Russia, of 
the Holy Family, in which the Calf is found instead of the Ram. 
A learned author pronounces that the doctrine of the Assassins 
and the Templars were the same, and who may say the Templars 
did not have their inception in Syria ? 

All Temples were surrounded with pillars recording the 
number of the constellations, the signs of the Zodiac, or the 
cycles of the planets; and each Tern-plum was supposed, in some 
way, to be a microcosm, or symbol, of the Temple of the Uni- 
verse, or of the starry vault called Templum.* It was this 
Templum of the universe from which the Knights Templars 
took their name, and not from the individual Temple at Jeru- 
salem, built probably by their predecessors, and destroyed many 
years before the time allotted to their rise; but which rise, it is 
suspected, was only a revivification from a state of depression 
into which they had fallen. 

Theatres were originally Temples, where the Mythos was 
scenically represented. And until they were abused they were 
intended for nothing else. But it is evident that, for this pur- 
pose, a peculiar construction of the Temple was necessary. When 



*The Rosicrucians of the present day teach this identical doctrine 
— that man must, through development, become the perfect Temple. St. 
John taught this also when he said : "Know ye not ye are the Temples 
of the Living God?" This is the reason the Rose Cross does not have 
any ceremonial Initiation until after the Neophyte has become the Ini- 
tiate, then only to personify the stages of growth through which he had 
passed. See "Temple of the Rosy Cross" by Freeman B. Dowd. 



i6d PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

Scaurus built a Theatre in Greece, he surrounded it with 360 
Pillars. The Temple at Mecca was surrounded with 360 stones. 
xA.nd, in like manner, with the same number the Templum at 
Iona, in Scotland, was surrounded. The Templars were noth- 
ing but one branch of the Secret Schools of that age, from 
whence sprang Masonry, a branch to which the care of some 
peculiar part of the Temples was entrusted; there is a proba- 
bility that the name of Templars was only another name for 
Casideans. 

In the Western part of Asia, in the beginning of the 
twelfth century, the sect or religious tribe called Ishmaelites, or 
Battenians, or Assassins, arose. These "Assassins" were first 
noticed, in the Western world, with their chief Hakem Berm- 
rillah, or Hakembiamr-allah, who was held up, in Syria, as the 
Tenth Avatar, or, as it is assumed, incarnation. His ideas of 
God, were very refined. The first of the creatures of God, the 
only production immediate of His power, was the intelligence 
universelle, which showed itself at each of the manifestations of 
the Divinity on earth; by means of this minister, all crea- 
tures were made; he was the Mediator between God and man. 
This intelligence universelle is the Logos, Rasir, or Aviatar. 

It would seem probable that the followers of Bermrillah 
were originally adorers of Taurus, or the Calf or Calves, which 
they continued to mix with the other doctrines of Buddha. It 
must be remembered that this worship of the Calf is not to be 
taken in its literal sense but is only a symbol of the Lamb or 
Christos. The hidden, Living Fire indwelling in all men and 
coming from God — Love. 

Chaldean implies Sabaean.* The word Chaldean is a cor- 
ruption of the word Chasdim; this is most clearly the same 
as the Colida, and Colchida, and Colchis of Asia, and as the 
Colidei and Culdees of Scotland. Now all this, and the circum- 



* Another sect of Fire Worshippers, or Fire Philosophers. 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 161 

stances relating to the Chaldees, often called Mathematici, to 
the Assassins, the Templars, Manichaeans, etc., being consid- 
ered, the name of the Assassins, or Hasesssins, or Assanites, or 
Chasiens, or Alchaschisin, will not be thought unlikely to be a 
corruption of Chasdim, and to mean Chaldees or Culdees, and 
possibly connected with the Templars. We can thus trace 
them in no other way. When the Arabic emphatic article 
AL is taken from this hard word AL-chas-chischin, it is Chas- 
chis-chin. The Assassins were also called Druses, or Druiseans. 
The learned author of the "Celtic Druids" states that he 
has proved these Druses to be both Druids and Culdees. In all 
accounts of the Assassins, they are said to have existed, in the 
East, in considerable numbers. B. de Tudela states he found 
these numerous not far from Samarcand or Balkh and also de- 
scribed many great tribes of what he calls Jews, living, speaking 
the Chaldee language, occupying the country, and possessing the 
government of it. He further states that among these Jews are 
disciples of the wise men. He tells us that they occupy the 
mountains of Haphton. Here are, it is to be thought, the 
Afghans, and that too clearly to be disputed. Under the word 
Haphton lies the word xAighan; and the disciples of the wise 
man, Hakem, .frequented the Temples of Solomon in Cashmere, 
and were called Hakmites, Ishmaelians, and Battenians, that is, 
Buddheans. The word Hakem is the word HKN, which in 
the Chaldee means wise. xALl physicians, in the East, are called 
Hakem. All this helps to prove not only that the Templars 
did share doctrines with the Assassins and Ishmaelians, but that 
they were much older than the Crusaders; furthermore, that the 
pretended origin of these people is totally false. The Gymnoso- 
phites, the Casideans, the Essenes, the Therapeuttae, the Diones- 
ianSj the Eleusinians, the Pythagoreans, the Chaldeans, the As- 
sassins, and the Buddheans were all Orders of Philosophical- 
Religionists, including among them, and consisting in great part 



162 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

of an Order of Monks, who were, in fact, the heads of these 
Societies. 

There is no doubt that all the Caliphs of the Saracens were, 
secretly or openly, Sophees. The Sophees are divided, at this 
day, into many sects; and, in their four stages, they have a species 
of Masonic, or Eleusinian, . initiation from lower to higher de- 
grees; and this Order, it may be truthfully said, has some of 
the greatest Mysteries in their possession now held by any Order 
or Fraternity in the world. Sir John Malcolm says that Hassan 
Sabah and his descendants were a race of Sophees, and that they 
were of the sect of Battaneah, that is, Buddha. They were 
Templars, or Casi-deans, or Chas-di-im, or followers of Ras, 
or Masons. 

The use of the Pallium, or sacred cloak, to convey the char- 
acter of Inspiration, was practiced by the Imaums of Persia, the 
same as practiced by Elias and Elishah (Eli-shah). This is 
continued by their followers to this day. When a person is ad- 
mitted to the highest degree, he will receive the investiture with 
the Pallium and the Samach. When the Grand-Seignior confers 
honour on a person, he gives him a pellise, a Paul, a pla, a 
sacred clcak, a remnant of the old form. From this comes the 
word "palls" at our funerals. 

One of the names which excites the greatest curiosity as to 
its meaning, of the chief of the Assassins, was "Old Man of 
the Mountain"— senex de montibus. The Buddwa of Scotland 
was called "old man:" and Buddha, in India, means old man. 
• he opinion that the Assassins were Buddaists receives confirma- 
tion, in part, from the idea that he was reckoned as representa- 
tive of the "ancient of days." The representative idea, or form, 
or figure, by which the Prophet speaks of the Divine Intelligence 
— "Ancient of days,"' whose hair was wool, of a white color. 
But in Persian, according to Sir John Malcolm, the word sofee 
means both wisdom and wool. It is possible that from this idea 
we obtain the white goats' hair cloaks of the Albanians, with. 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 163 

their "snowy samese and their shaggy capote;" the white ber- 
noose of the Moors, the white robes of the Carmelites; nay, the 
sacred acceptation, and the supposedly enchanted value, of the 
color white generally. 

That the renowned and feared tribes of Assassins, or 
Ishmaelites, whose history presents such an inextricable connec- 
tion with that of the Templars, and also with that of the Hos- 
pitallers, were acquainted with, if not professors of, the Fire- 
Philosophy of Zoroaster (so little understood by the profane), 
from which, indeed, they derived their atheistic desperation, will 
be apparent when we examine their belief. 

What was really the object of the worship of the Knights 
Templars, in their secret synods, none but the Initiate can know. 
Whether, indeed, in their intercourse with infidels, they had not 
imbibed some of the ancient, traditionary ideas, and learned the 
religion of the inhabitants of that part of Asia bounded by 
Persia on the one hand, and by the Mediterranean on the other, 
seems a point more readily settled in the affirmative. In this 
view, Flame-worship would have passed a part of the adopted 
rites. We are thus brought to contemplate the Templars not so 
much in the light of a new superstition as in the brilliancy of the 
Philosophic position of the Magi in the old world of thought, 
and of the Rosicrucians, Brethren of the Rosy Cross, or Illu- 
minati, in the new. 

Lamps and cloisters, lamps and altars, lamps and shrines, 
lights and tombs, lights (fire) everywhere, are connected ideas. 
The romance lingering and brightening about these strange sub- 
jects may have its origin in the real, philosophic, unsuspected 
truth which gives life to their meaning even for all time. 
Romance never has life except for the truth that underlies it. 
With these Fires among the graves — with the ultimate and 
funeral burning — with the pyre of the classics and the Fire-im- 
molations of the Orientals — with the Sacred Fire of the Magi, 
now as in the past, and the cressets and the torches of the 



164 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

Christian Knightly Fraternities, we connect the Ever-Burning 
lamps, (always representing true Love and Immortality to the 
Initiate, and merely heathenism to the masses and profane of 
which we have archaeological accounts, and the suspected, 
Ishmaelitish, Bohemian, or Fire-Worshipping Mysticism, which 
is no less than Fire, or Love (God) Worship, harbored as the 
"strange thing'' among the cowles and stoles, amidst the crosses 
and the books, and glancing, as the fiery crested snake (which is 
a symbol of Love and Fire Wisdom) from among the resplen- 
dent arms of the supposed (by the profane) renegade Templars. 

To this striking object of tomb-Lights, incoherent in any 
other view than as the attestation, through the ages, of a Uni- 
versal, though Secret, faith, Walter Scott accidently (and un- 
conscious of its meaning) makes reference when he adjures 
the dying lamps as burning — 

" Before thy low and lonely urn, 
O Gallant chief of Otter bourne; 
And thine, dark Knight of LiddesdaleP' 

01 the "grave of the mighty dead,'* Michael Scott, the 
wizard of such dreadful fame, he also says that, within it — 
"Burned a wondrous light; 
Which lamp shall burn unquenchably ; " 
which means the Soul, the Fire, the Love, in man. 

The only serious hold which it is possible to gain over the 
minds of men is through the influence of the supernatual. It 
is absurd and inconsequential to believe that all the wonderful 
effects caused by the Templars and other Fraternities of Devotees 
which seemed bound by a religion produced in their time, could 
have sprung from no higher motive than the desire to aggrandise, 
to overpower, to rule, to force. Wonderful things, unbelievable 
things, miraculous things, impossible things, must have been 
offered to the common-sense of the men of the age, before they 
would have given in to the authority which became to them a* 
that of angels, of spirits, and of gods. It is no slight task to 
master the resisting common-sense of the world, that which is 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 165 

invincible, except at conviction. Instincts at detection were as 
strong then as now. We are accustomed, every day, to. the in- 
fallable judgments of common-sense. That, decision as to what 
a thing is, is as independent of us as the sense of light. Quick 
wit, sharp wits, hardness of unbelief, suspicion, the same reason 
as is at work now — these were identical in the dark ages — in 
any age in which man was man. Prophecy must have been 
wonderfully verified, the assumed magic must have been demon- 
strated real, something not at all a fraud, first, before imagina- 
tive and enthusiastic men themselves could believe it; second, 
before plain men could accept that which material sense assured 
was impossible. 

There existed in those secret societies, the dreams, trances, 
visions, and fore-knowledge which made princes of the Seers. 
It is in this secret medium — whatever it may be, whether con- 
jured out of the capacity of man in the intoxication of nar- 
cotics, through fumes, anointings, training, or lapsing out of the 
prisoned sense into the unimprisoned sense — it is in their new 
world that the explorers stumble upon unbelievable, though real, 
things. Of a piece with the miraculous provision obtained by 
the Grand Master of the Templars, in his agony, as noticed 
hereafter, were the two following instances of forecasting, which 
as far as can be affirmed by records, are definitely established. 
The Priestess Phoennis, the daughter of a Chaonic King, fore- 
told the devastating march of the Gauls, and the course which 
they would take from Europe to Asia, together with the de- 
struction of the cities, and this a generation before the event hap- 
pened. The King Phrrhus had received an oracular sentence — 
that he was destined to die as soon as he liad seen a wolf fight- 
ing with a bull. The sentence was fulfilled when in the market- 
place or Argos, he saw a bronze group representing such a com- 
bat. An old woman killed him by throwing down a tile from 
a house. 
_. The Assassins, as a secret sect, had a University among 



166 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

them. The course of instructions in this university, according 
to Macrisi, by following nine degree. 

The object of the first section of instruction, which was long 
and tedious, was to infuse doubts and difficulties into the minds 
of the aspirant, and to lead him to repose, with a blind, admir- 
ing confidence, in the knowledge and wisdom of the teachers. 
To this end he was perplexed with extraordinary, and seemingly 
unanswerable, questions. The absurdities of the literal sense of 
the Koran, and its repugnance to reason, were studiously pointed 
out. Dark hints were given that, beneath the shell of the 
philosophy taught, lay a kernel sweet to the taste and nutritive 
to the soul. But all further information was most rigorously 
withheld from the inquiring mind until the disciple had con- 
sented to bind himself, by a most solemn oath, to absolute faith 
and obedience to his instructor. 

In the second place, when the aspirant had taken the pre- 
scribed oath, he was admitted as a member of the second degree, 
in which was inculcated the acknowledgement of the particu- 
lars appointed by God as the sources of all knowledge. This in- 
cluded science, and the arts and facts of life. 

The third degree included the knowledge of farther import- 
ant facts, and the connection, and succession, and power of those 
facts. It also informed the student what was the number of 
the blessed and holy imams. This was the mystic seven; 
for, as God hath made seven heavens, seven earths, seas, planets, 
metals, tones, and colors, so seven was the number of the noblest 
angels, spirits, or attributes of God. Religion, as yet, was not 
outstept. 

In the fourth degree, the pupil learned that God had sent 
seven lawgivers into the world, each of whom was commissioned 
to alter and improve, or rather to develop, the system of his 
predecessor; that each of these had seven helpers, who appeared 
in the interval between him and his successor; these helpers, as 
they did not appear as public teachers, were called the mute 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 167 

(samit), in contradistinction to the speaking lawgivers. The 
seven lawgivers were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mo- 
hammed, and Ismail, the son of Jaaffer; the seven principal 
helpers, called Seats (Soos), were Seth, Shem, Ismael, the son 
of Abraham, Aaron, Simon, Ali, and Mohammed, the son oi 
Ismail. It is justly observed by the discerning Hammer that, 
as this last personage was not more than a century dead, the 
teacher had it in his power to fix on whom he would as the mute 
prophet of the time, and to inculcate the belief in, and obedience 
to, him of all who had not gone beyond this degree. 

The fifth degree taught that each of the seven mute 
prophets had twelve apostles for the dissemination of his faith. 
There were twelve signs of the Zodiac, twelve months, twelve 
tribes of Israel, twelve joints in the four fingers of each hand, 
and so forth. This all proves that this school was founded on 
facts that were absolute and not to be contradicted then or even 
at the present time. 

In the sixth degree, the disciple" being carefully led thus far, 
and his mind duly prepared for what followed, the Koran 
and the precepts contained in that book of authority were once 
more brought under consideration; and he was told that all the 
positive portions of religion, all the facts of faith, must be 
subordinated to the laws of nature and reconciled to the lights 
of philosophy, or be rejected as perhaps necessary to the compre- 
hension, though intrinsically worthless. In fact, man herein 
was thrown back upon nature, and taught to discover the exter- 
ior influences alone in it. Then succeeded, for a long space of 
time, instructions in the system of Aristotle. When considered 
fully qualified, the scholar was admitted to the seventh degree, 
in which knowledge was imparted in the Mystic pantheism which 
is held and taught by the sect of the Sofees. 

Von Hammer argues an identity between the two orders, 
as he styles them, of the Ishmaelites and the Templars from the 
similarity of their dress, their internal organization, and their 



168 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

Secret Doctrine. The color of the Khalifs of the house of 
Ommiyah was white; hence the house of Abbas, in their contest 
with them, adopted black as their distinguishing hue. Hassan 
Sabah, when he formed the institution of the fedavee, or the 
''Devoted to Death/' assigned them a red girdle or cap. The 
mantle worn by the members of the Hospital was black. 

The last Grand Master of the Templars, Jacques de Molar, 
together with his companion, Guy, brother of the Dauphin of 
Auvergne, was brought forth and placed upon a pile erected 
upon that point of the islet of the Seine, at Paris, where after- 
wards was erected the statue of Henry IV. It was a day of 
March, the 19th, as it is stated by the historians, 1314. The 
two Unfortunate Templars suffered with constancy, to the last 
asserting their innocense of the things with which they were 
accused. The spectators wept and shrieked at the spectacle of 
their sacrifice. During the night their ashes were gathered up 
to be preserved as relics. 

Molay, ere he expired, summoned Clement, the Pope who 
had pronounced the bull of abolition against the Order and had 
condemned the Grand Master to the flames, to appear, within 
forty days, before the Supreme Eternal Judge, and Phillip to the 
.same awful but just tribunal within the space of a year. Both 
predictions were fulfilled and thus was justice meted out. The 
Pontiff did actually die of a colic on the night of the 19th of 
the following month. More dreadful still, the church in which 
his body was deposited in state, took fire, the flames spread, 
and the corpse of Clement was half consumed. The King, be- 
fore the year had elapsed, by an accidental fall from his horse, 
suffered such injury that he died. The fulfillment of these 
two prophecies showed to what knowledge the Master of the 
Order had achieved and produced marvelous effect. The un- 
fortunate Templars were justly regarded as martyrs. 

We know that the general — nay, the universal — belief to 
the contrary, that the Order of the Knights Templars, in cer- 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 169 

tain forms, has continued down to the present day. The Ring 
of Portugal, in his dominions, formed the Order of Christ out 
of the Templars. The Freemasons also were connected with the 
ancient Templars; and there is a society bearing -the name of 
Brethren of the Temple, whose chief seat is at Paris, and its 
branches extend into various countries, and into England. 
Jacques de Molay, in the year 1315, in anticipation of his speedy 
martyrdom, appointed Johannes Marcus Lormenius to be his 
successor in his dignity, and there has been an unbroken, though 
secret, succession of the Grand Masters down to the present time. 
That the Secret Doctrines of the Templars were partaken of by 
the Knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem we also have 
proof. Signor Rossetti, who possessed a very intimate acquaint- 
ance with the history of the Hospitallers, maintains stoutly 
that there is much in common between the doctrines taught in 
the higher grades of Freemasonry — more, also, that has been 
lost — and the views, formulae, and fashions of the Order of the 
Temple. True Masons, who appreciate the spirit of their Fra- 
ternity as well as the rituals, know that Masonry, as least in 
part, sprang from the Templars. 

Lost in the clouds of antiquity, the dim forms of the mailed 
Templars disappear. Their buildings, their churches, their 
haunts, remain. But the inhabitants are passed into the 
shadows. Their remembrances and their secrets only survive 
in the quaint courts of the Temples. The fact that their dwell- 
ing-place was once within the present purlieus of law, that the 
notes of their wild Eastern music, and the ceremonies of their 
strange, deeply Mystic worship were, in the time that has almost 
become a dream, real matters in the story of those, at present, 
so unromantic buildings — truths amidst this wilderness of me- 
chanical-law-spelling, these things of a life so unlike our present 
form of existence lend an interest to the very name of the Tem- 
ples yet standing, holding their secrets as ever and defying the 



170 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

crude and unnatural investigations of the profane, but so well- 
known to the true Initiate. 

There exist real personal memorials of this antique and 
wonderful body of the Templars, preserved in secret at the pres- 
ent time in Paris. Some of the archives and statutes — portions 
of the unexamined history — even some of the mystic banners, 
and an assortment of the arms of the brotherhood, still survive. 
These are kept in unknown but not in obscure or dilapidated 
buildings, as some, for want of knowledge, seem to think. 
Strange that the world should think the secrets of such a mighty 
sect of Fire Philosophers, once living, should ever die ! It is im- 
possible. God does not permit it to be. 



Atlantis 

Its Beauty. Its Fall. 

"On that portion of the maps of the earth's surface named 
the Western Hemisphere can be found an immense island-stud- 
ded sea, and an almost land-locked gulf. Into this gulf stretches 
a nearly perfect parallelogram, the peninsula of Yucatan. 

"So long ago that history fades into the hoary mists of tra- 
dition, the gulf was an inland lake. Where the islands now 
show themselves amid the blue waters, a continent sunned itself 
in the light of blazing days. 

"This continent was peopled by the Aryan race. Its lati- 
tude teemed with all needed conditions to make exotic life most 
desirable, whether such life was on the animal or the vegetable 
plane. The population increased and multiplied until the whole 
broad land became one vast city. Temples and palaces, works 
of skill and art, abounded everywhere. These did not there 
represent the slow toil of human sweat and agony, of brute force 
tyrannized into sulky compliance. Brilliant in design and bold 
in execution, they were the manifestation of soul-power over 
Elemental force. The worship of the one God was taught. To 
those who desired, training for the acquisition of the most Oc- 
cult and Mystical knowledge and power ever known to men was 
possible. 

"They who had charge of these departments as Keepers of 
the Keys and treasuries of knowledge were neither unaware nor 
unmindful of the fact of other planes of existence upon the 
earth. For thousands of years they strove earnestly to better 
all states of their fellowmen by imparting a knowledge of the 
truth. 



172 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

"By the silent thought the whole people were lifted grade 
by grade as rapidly as they could assimilate the instructions 
which are of so much influence and assistance in the duties and 
pleasures of life. Just as fast as they could be educated to per- 
ceive these facts, they were advanced in the scale of existence. 

"It is true of all peoples, nations, kindreds, and tongues, 
that in proportion as the lower classes rise from a given starting 
point towards the Light, the force generated (vibrations set in 
motion) by their action will lift those who are sensitive and 
fit still farther above them. It is better to be the wise men of a 
nation of Philosophers than the learned of a race of cringing 
slaves. 

"It is not strange, therefore, that these of whom I speak 
should have held the mightiest secrets of the universe in their 
keeping. It was unquestionable that the trackless waste of water 
in unknown seas became to them familiar paths, nor that the 
mysteries of the earth, of the air, and of all Nature were at their 
command. The archives of all ancient nations, carved in their 
books of stone, speak clearly and truly of them. In Egypt, in 
Assyria, in India, are found the same inscriptions, conveying 
the same knowledge that is today locked up in the ruined cities 
covered by the forests of thousands of years in Yucatan*. 

"The Western lamp of knowledge was never lighted from 
the East. From the proud seagirt continent of Atlantis went 
forth, as from the sun, to all parts of the earth under the heav- 
ens, the Illumination of truth and knowledge. 

"The old Atlantians, going forth in their galleys hither and 
yon, so controlled the Elementals by their knowledge of the Hid- 
den Laws of Nature that they had no need to wait for the mov- 
ing of the winds or tides. Like Christos, who, in the storm, 
stilled the waves and bade them be at peace, and immediately 



*The Fraternity "Sons of Osiris" continues its office in Yucatan, 
from whence it had been transplanted to Egypt ages ago. 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 173 



they were at the place whither they were going, so the Atlantians 
moved over the wide wilderness of waters on earth, scattering 
the seeds of their knowledge along the shores they visited. The 
seeds fell into good ground in Egypt, Chaldea, and India. 

"It can be noted wherever the pressure of the ever-recurring 
demands of the physical — that never-yielding circle of neces- 
sity—was least on the matter over which the spirit sought to 
maintain dominion, meanwhile sinking deeper and deeper into 
its illusions with the downward rush of the cycle, there the seeds 
of Truth took root and grew most vigorously. At such point? 
were more leisure, strength and purpose to bring forth, as fruit, 
the knowledge of the unseen in its greatest perfection and abund- 
ance. Spirit domination is a tropical fruit reaching mature per- 
fection only in those countries where the bountiful earth minis- 
ters voluntarily, always anticipating man's physical necessities, 
sun-cooked food does not stimulate groveling desires. 

"The dwellers in more rigorous latitudes, who, in spite of 
opposing force, still gain spiritual elevation for themselves, are 
richer in strength and force. This is the result of the discipline 
acquired in the overcoming of the natural obstacles of their en- 
vironment. The harder the battle, the more important the vic- 
tory. So long as Atlantis obeyed the law that makes all men 
gods in wisdom, it prospered mightily. But there came at 
last a time when they who had the knowledge only in trust, 
permitted themselves to think, to wish, and to plan for grasping 
the absolute control of the whole world. In this they sought to 
climb into the seat and place of the Supreme. Beyond the earth 
lies the universe. The lesser is but the result of the greater. 

"The One denies no one knowledge. Whoever seeks to take 
from it, its authority, its supremacy, thus attempting arrogation 
or absorption into the Oneness in any other than the appointed 
ways which lie open to all created beings, shows a taint of gross- 
ness inspiring the desire, surely provocative of swift destruction. 
They who thus planned were powerful far beyond the concep- 



174 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

tion of mortal, holding at option all the secrets of Nature save 
one, that one embracing the Infinite supremacy of the one. 

"These leaders had freely scattered knowledge abroad upon 
the earth. By self-denial and long training they had attained, 
and yet at almost the supreme moment, dazzled by the bright- 
ness of the Illumination, they looked once again toward self. 
From their memories faded out the unchanging law: 'Thus far 
and no farther, shalt thou go.' The ceaseless breaking of the 
waves of the mighty sea against the silent resistance of rock- 
bound coasts, ceased to utter its warning to dazed mentality. The 
on-ccming day, beginning of the end to those who had forgotten 
the very life and essence of the One, was at hand. The proud 
city of Atlantis, city and continent one, sitting as a queen upon 
the throne of the waters, had, by arrogant presumption, filled 
full the cup of wrath, for which expiation must be made. They 
— masters of all the Elements and all lawful knowledge of the 
Unseen — now sought the forbidden, as if the part should de- 
mand equality with the whole. Step by step they had reached 
the veil separating them from the whiteness of the Immediate 
Presence; and now, as the last fatal step, they had determined 
by the exercise of their most potent skill to rend the veil and to 
come unheralded and unsummoned before the fact of It whom 
nc man hath seen at any time. 

"Carefully were their preparations made, most accurately 
were the sacred computations wrought out to decide the auspici- 
ous hour. . . . Panoplied with the consciousness of previous 
achievement, their call to the embattled hosts of the universe 
rang out along the astral currents. Confidently the word of 
power was spoken in all the pride of human will. The expected 
accomplishment did not follow. To their amazed horror they 
discerned a new vibration, a resultant of creative thought in its 
own defence. To this they had no key, and first bewildered, 
then terrified, they perceived that the immense force, by their 
own act, had destroyed the accurate balance and adjustment of 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 175 



Nature's laws. Utterly without resource, they waited for the 
outcome. 

"Thus knowing the inner, behold the outer. The sun rises 
in its eastern splendor. The mighty millions who dwell in 
palaces and temples, in luxury or frugality, dream not of nor can 
they understand the word of the Omnipotent, already spoken 
and gone forth whereunto it was sent. They awake to their life 
of ease and pleasure with the self-assurance that the thing exist- 
ing hitherto will still continue to be. In their hearts they say : 
'Have we not compelling power and force! Sufficient for the 
day is the evil thereof/ They pass on, without concern, to their 
usual affairs. Clouds begin to interrupt the clearness of the 
sky. They deepen and darken. The uncontrollable, elemental 
storm of the tropics, after years of durance, has burst its prison- 
ing fetters. The people are awed by the terrific intensity of the 
outburst, but comfort their hearts with the idea that it will pass 
on as it has hitherto done. They know not that the sceptre had 
slipped from the hands of the former rulers, who, within the 
chambers of the Three, Five, and Seven, in the great tower of 
the temple, now lie prone upon their faces, heroically awaiting 
the unrolling of the book of just judgment. The cyclone becomes 
a continuous storm of day after day. The rocking earth vibrates 
beneath their feet, and trembles with each new blast of the mighty 
forces of Nature, wind-enveloped, drawn here by human will, 
and now uncontrolld. The waters of the sea invade the land. 
Lashed on by the fierce currents upon their surface, the tides 
seem to be mounting higher and higher. It is now known that 
is was the sinking of the land, and not the rising of the water, 
which for ages has hidden from investigation the abodes of the 
r'chest and most powerful nation ever dwelling upon the earth. 
Foot by foot all that had ever been given to us by the waters was 
again demanded, and returned to its origin. The records of 
thousands of years were buried beneath the storm-tossed waters 
■ — buried, but not destroyed. Only the mountain-tops and the 



176 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

highest plateaus now known as islands, remained of all the 
vast continent. The inland lake mingled its waters with the 
incoming torrent from the salty ocean, and a great gulf waters 
the southern shore of the country, where now live in peace and 
Wonder, over the hidden past, the same reincarnated mighty race. 
A few scattered books, written in stone, were saved, and a wall 
invisible and impermeable, was built around the indestructible 
manuscript. Unseen and Infinite Power has thus preserved 
Useful knowledge until the times for the revealing shall have 

COffii; 

:; Fe&r and dread for ages and ages after the awful cata- 
clysm, detained within the boundaries of their own country, the 
feeble remnant of a people once so invincible and venturesome. 
The rest of the world passed on and forgot them. 

The story of the Light bearer who fell from heaven is like 
the story of lost Atlantis. The legend of the great flood is the 
true narrative of facts of whose awfulness only the Atlantians 
had experience. They were forbidden to return to earth until 
the impetus of their knowledge should in some manner have 
spent itself, lest recurring memory tempt them to their own fu- 
ture ruin. Thanks to the Ruler of Men, they are again to be 
permitted to pass out of the valley of the shadow into the possi- 
bility of new experience, life and knowledge. None but he who 
has lived under the awful shadow can understand w 7 hat it is to 
exist outside of the Love current of the universe, enveloped in 
the separating displeasure of the Almighty ; which is the condition 
of those who seek selfish interest in preference to the good and 
welfare and benefits of others. 

This is the story of the lost Atlantis, a continent where men 
had reached earthly perfection, in which all power had been 
granted them except the privilege to stand face to face with God. 
This they were forbidden to ask; but they were not satisfied with 
the mighty power in their possession and they attempted to rend 
the veil which separated them from the presence of God, and 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 177 

ruin and absolute loss of power was the result. The story of 
Atlantis should be a warning to all of those who would travel 
the Occult path: "Thus far and no farther, mayst thou go while 
in the flesh." It is a warning to all men to be careful of their 
desires, to seek within themselves for the why they covet the 
potential and awful dynamic forces which may be obtained 
through living the life taught by the Secret Schools. 

While the Atlantians were united as one and obeyed the 
Supreme Law, all was well, but no sooner did they follow the 
desires of the flesh and become dis-united than the fall came. 
This is the history not only of the Atlantians, but also of the 
Egyptians, the Grecians, the Persians, as well as of the Romans. 

In our present incarnation we study to recall the ancient 
teachings and methods of use in our unfolding, knowing that we 
gathered from out the 'Golden Age' the 'One Word, One Princi- 
ple, One Truth,' which will last as long as Eternity. Yet, in 
each incarnation, we must recall the wisdom already gained, and 
add new experiences as we continue in the grand march of evo- 
lution. Therefore, the new is built out of the old, and who 
knows but what we shall find some things that will prove the 
part we played in the drama of life on the stage where the light 
first appeared in Atlantis, and where it disappeared to reappear 
in Egypt, flourishing for a time, but finally disappearing in 
India, leaving that great nation and its people in darkness. 

Who knows but in turning to the great Past, studying the 
ancient people and religions, we may regain some forgotten 
knowledge giving us the power to reach the place God intended, 
when the 'Word became flesh. 1 

"There is but little revealed concerning the Art of Atlantis. 
A great deal can be said of the arts of ancient Egypt. Indian 
history tells us that the degree of excellence attained by that 
grand nation was of the most exalted kind. 

"Art as well as nations plays a part in the history of prog- 
ress, and we might say, in many respects, of the human mind; 



178 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

for the mode of expression is at all times a type, or symbol, of 
the tone or feeling which suggests it. In this, the Past is linked 
with the Present. Many consider all efforts in Art or life a 
sort of influence toward the perfect Ideal. Therefore, the genius 
displayed in those days exhibits results more beautiful and per- 
fect than that which came after that era. 

"All nations have their Arts, Sciences, and Religions. They 
display magnificent temples, and palaces where the multitude 
can gather, giving offerings of physical, as well as spiritual na- 
ture to the Deity. The Arts of the ancients were controlled by, 
or dependent upon, their respective religions, and flourished 
more or less according to the liberty allowed the Artist and the 
state of respect in which he was held by his fellowman. 

"Little can be traced concerning the Arts and Sciences of 
Atlantis, therefore allow me to quote something that has been re- 
vealed. Our own race, the Aryan, has naturally achieved far 
greater results in almost every direction than the Atlantians. 
Where they failed to reach our level, the records of what they 
did accomplish are of interest as representing the high-water 
mark their tide of civilization reached. On the other hand, the 
character of the scientific achievements in which they did out- 
strip us are of so dazzling a nature that we are bewildered by 
such unequal development. 

"The Arts and Sciences, as practiced by the first two Races, 
were, of course, crude in a degree. The history of the Atlant- 
ians, as of the Aryan race, was interspersed with periods of prog- 
ress and decay. Eras of culture were lost in lawlessness, dur- 
ing which their artistic and scientific development was lost; be- 
ing succeeded by civilization reaching to still higher levels. 

"Architecture, sculpture, painting, and music were all cul- 
tivated in Atlantis. From what has been gathered from na-. 
tions in the near Past in regard to the development of Music, 
we cannot expect that the Atlantians reached any degree of 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 179 

— — — ^ —— — M^M — I 

perfection. Their instruments undoubtedly were of the most 
primitive type; the music at the best crude. 

"One thing is certain, the Atlantians were fond of 
color, and brilliant hues decorated both inside and outside of 
their buildings, but painting as we know it today as a fine art 
could hardly have been established. As time brought forth de- 
velopment of a love for studying Nature and depicting her beau- 
ties upon paper, or whatever material they used- drawing and 
painting must have formed a part of their school studies. 

"Sculpture, on the other hand, was most certainly taught 
extensively and widely practiced. It attained great ex 
cellence, becoming in a religious way the custom for the rich 
to place in some of the temples an image of themselves. These 
were usually carved in wood or a black stone. The wealthiest 
had their statues cast in one of the precious metals, gold, silver, 
or aurichalcum. This metal was made from a yellow copper 
ore. Its lustre is pearly; its color pale green, sometimes azure. 

. "Architecture was naturally widely practiced, as manifest- 
ing their respect and devotion to their religious beliefs, if we 
were to judge, believing as we do, that the Atlantians in fleeing 
from their disappearing country, found a resting place in Egypt. 
The Atlantians built massive structures of gigantic proportions, 
the ruins of some of their temples and pyramids wherein it is 
clear!}" indicated that the Fire Philosophy was the base of their 
religion, still remain in Yucatan where a few of the Masters, 
or Initiates, of the old Order still remain. 

Their temples were beyond description; some of the buildings 
in the last World's Fair in Chicago were built from some re- 
maining memory in the minds of the architects. The future still 
holds the reproduction of the other great temples. As time rolls 
on and the human family becomes more harmonious and cul- 
tured through the refining process of the Spiritual Fire, again 
the 'One Word, One Principle, and One Truth' shall dominate, 



180 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

forcing through the spirit of harmonious vibration the desire for 
one Church, or Temple, the Temple of Universal Justice, where- 
in all shall have Equal Opportunity, the Right of Free Choice, 
and taught so that each may become truly Human and truly 
Divine, while yet in the flesh. 



Egypt, 



once the Glorious 



The history of Egypt, which is but a continuation of Atlan- 
tis, may be divided into two periods, each subject to various 
changes and revolutions. What took place during the reign of 
Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, and the period of the Israel- 
ites' captivity, or the immediate generations preceeding the eigh- 
teenth dynasty, or that of Ramses the Great, who lived about 
fourteen centuries before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, he who 
became the Master- Initiate, may be considered the beginning of 
true Art in Egypt, of which little is known beyond what is 
said in the book of Genesis and the account in Exodus. 

"Pliny tells us, that according to their own accounts, the 
Egyptians were masters of painting full 6,000 years before it 
passed from them to the Greeks. The Art of Egypt was purely 
symbolic in its principles and historic in its practice; was 
the tool of a hierarchy; its artists the slaves of superstitions. 
Egyptian hieroglyphics appear to be simply records, social, re- 
ligious, and political. Egyptian painting was accordingly more 
of a symbolical writing than a liberal art. 

"The architectural remains that have attracted so much no- 
tice in Egypt during the last century are scattered along both 
sides of the Nile for a distance of nearly a thousand miles. 
These consist of temples, pyramids, obelisks, and monoliths, or 
large stone pillars. Very diverse opinions have been expressed as 
to the periods when these various monuments were built; but it 
is generally agreed that their construction must have embraced 
the long period of at least 2,000 years. Some, situated near the 
mouth of the Nile, having been constructed after the commence- 



182 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

ment of the Christian era; while others, high up in the country 
toward Abyssinia, are believed to have been built nearly 2,000 
years before the Christian era. Whatever may be the difference 
of opinion on these conjectural points, it is agreed by those who 
know, that Egypt displayd the most mighty examples of struc- 
tures built ages before Greece and Rome were numbered among 
the nations of the world, and all other ancient structures may be 
best viewed by comparing them with those of Egypt. 

"At a short distance from Danderah, now called upper 
Egypt, is the most extraordinary group of architectural ruins 
presented in any part of the world, known as the Temples of 
the ancient City of Trebes. Trebes in its prime occupied a 
large area on both sides of the Nile. This city was the center of 
a great commercial nation of Upper Egypt, ages before Memphis 
was the capital of the second nation in Lower Egypt; and how- 
ever grand the architectural monuments of the latter may have 
been, those of the former surpassed them. 

"What sublime conceptions can be derived from such mag- 
nificent specimens of man's creation in architecture, not only in 
magnitude, but in form, proportion, and construction! The 
portrayal by pencil or brush can convey but a faint idea of the 
perfected city. As the city stands today it is like a city of 
giants, who after a long conflict, have been all destroyed, leav- 
ing the ruins of their various temples as the only proofs of their 
existence. 

"The Temple of Luxor (it was in this temple that the 
Grand Lodge of Initiates always met) stands on a raised plat- 
form of brickwork covering more than 2,000 feet in length and 
1,000 in breadth. It is the one that interests the members of all 
Ancient Orders, especially so all the members of those Orders 
that worshipped at the Shrine of the Secret Fire, more than per- 
haps any other, and stands on the eastern bank of the Nile. It 
is in a very ruined state; but records say the stupendous scale 
of its proportions almost takes away the sense of its incomplete- 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 183 

ness. Up to about a quarter of a century ago, the greater part 
of its columns in the interior and part of the inner sanctuary 
remained; but the outer walls had been removed after falling, 
for use elsewhere. 

"This Temple (which figures more or less in the history of 
the different Occult or Mystical Orders as all originally came 
from one source and that Atlantis, from the Atlantian Fire 
Worshippers), was founded by Amenothis III, who construct- 
ed the southern part, including the heavy colonnade over-looking 
the river; but the world is indebted to Rameses II for the re- 
maining portion, but destruction unfortunately conceals this 
fact. The chief entrance to the Temple looked to the East; 
while the Holy Chamber at the upper end of the plan approach- 
ed the Nile. As mighty as the Temple of Luxor was, it was ex- 
ceeded in magnitude and grandeur by that of Carnak. The 
distance between these two great structures was a mile and a 
half. Along this avenue was a double row of Sphinxes placed 
twelve feet apart and the width of the avenue was sixty feet. 
When in perfect state, this avenue presented the most extraordin- 
ary entrance that the world has ever seen. If we had the power 
to picture from the field of imagination the grand processions of 
Neophytes constantly passing through and taking part in the 
ceremonies of Initiation, we would be powerless to produce the 
grandeur of the surroundings and the imposing sight of color 
and magnificent trappings of those who took part. Neither can 
we produce the music that kept the vast number of people in 
steady marching order. Crude it may have been to the culti- 
vated ear of the twentieth century. But could not the palpitating 
strain sung by massed voices on the lapse of time, whose his- 
tory touches the profoundest aspirations of the human heart, 
like the trend of a mighty river, become the grand currents of 
Universal Law, imparting the desire to that shadowy Past, as it 
steps forth from the pages of a history dim with age? 

"Egypt must have been, when these Temples were built, a 



184 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

marital nation; for records of its war-like deeds are perpetu- 
ated in deeply engraved tablets, which even now, excite the ad- 
miration of the best judges of archaeological remains. It was 
also a highly civilized nation and of a nature that could bear 
the expenditure which always attends the culture of the Arts. 
Yet, strange as it may seem, we do not know with any certainty 
either its history or its chronology. It surpassed, in its aston- 
ishing architecture, all other nations that have existed upon the 
earth; and yet the greater power and beauty which belongs to 
intellect was scarcely to be traced. 

"In those times, the armies of Egypt went forth to conquer 
and subdue the known physical world. But the knowledge and 
potency that found rest and culture at Atlantis, Luxor, and Ele- 
phantis so permeated and controlled all nations that records of 
experience, becoming knowledge, have been preserved even to the 
present day. So deeply were they impressed upon the unseen 
that they, returning upon their cycles of development, have been 
considered by our age, as original inventions and discoveries. 
The earth-born forget nothing so easily as wisdom, or its pos- 
session. The Thrice-Wise said: 'There is nothing new under 
the sun.' But in our day, when, instead of the best men and 
soldiers of a nationality coming forth from fair and beautiful 
cities, arrayed for the conquest, the armies of Egypt and Chaldea 
are swarming from out the unseen. They are overrunning all 
countries where there is spiritual Light and Life enough to give 
them assurance of sufficient advancement to warrant their in- 
carnation. They are hampered by the customs and restrictions 
of the mortal laws, and their own strict regard for all law. If 
there was one thing more than another that an Egyptian re 
spected and venerated, it was the law under which he lived; the 
symbols of authority upon the throne; and the sign of Spiritual 
Presence in the temple. Urged on, however, by the impulses of 
the Higher Self, they are striving in this day and generation to 
the best of their unfolding, for their own progress, and for the 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 185 

consolidation of the Brotherhood seen and unseen. They have 
perceived it was absolutely necessary to rise above the mental 
impediments of their environments; and the Unseen Brotherhood 
who are not yet ready to support their colleagues, in manifesta- 
tion, stand behind them rank upon rank. The impulse and the 
vibration coming from these supporting columns, thrill along the 
soul formations of the past. The vibrations bring recurring 
memories, which whisper of the One, the great God Om, and of 
His truth. Everywhere, on all lines, these Ancient Ones are 
seeking to verify in the outer, what Cabalistic symbols and signs 
are, the Hidden Truths of Being, which from time to time have 
been whispered out of the intelligence and knowledge locked up 
in the Archives of the Astral Light Library. 

"Oh! You Neophytes, listen to the Voice that comes out of 
the Silence, and believe it for the truth's sake. You have not 
yet concentrated enough. The Watch-Fires on the mountain top 
do not yet break down the darkness. So separated they contain 
within themselves weakness. If they can be brought together, 
knowing each other's feeling and intensity of purpose, which de- 
mands sacrifice of the modes of expression, of the spirit of the 
utterances, then it will be as if a thousand camp-fires were mass- 
ed in one, and it became the beacon light of the world. The field 
is ripe for the harvest and the stalks are falling on the ground 
from the weight of the grain ; will you save it ? Will you accom- 
plish for yourself that which shall make the path of those who 
follow you easier? We have, in our Archives, the Mysteries; 
are you ready to receive them? As Egypt in the olden time, 
when her star of glory was highest, was mistress of the 
world, so now may you be full of potency and power, Masters of 
the good, ready to lean on and place on record the conditions 
needed to bring about the opening again of that which was lost 
to those who are now crying, hungering, and thirsting for the 
truth. 

"The t^ue Egyptian knows whatever was lost had not dis- 



186 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

appeared in the sense of being destroyed, but is simply veiled. 
The Veil of Isis is thrown over it; and no arm since that time, 
has been strong enough, potent enough, will-f\i\ enough to tear it 
aside. The land of Egypt lies desolate, the stranger treadeth 
within her gates, desolation broods over her temples, her palaces, 
her cities, and the Archives and treasures of Incomparable 
knowledge. How long, O sons of Egypt! Brothers of the one 
family! Sons of the One! will you refuse or think it of little 
moment to take concerted and united action, that there may come 
to Light once again all the beauty and grandeur; all the potency 
and knowledge that have been waiting thousands of years, for 
the time and times when you should once more be upon earth. 
We, in our Secret Archives hold the documents and the Myster- 
ies of the temples. Are you ready to receive these Mysteries? 
Shall the cycles move on, and you, having accomplished your 
pilgrimage, go hence into the Unseen leaving all unrevealed that 
might have come to you; and thus all the world to await the un- 
folding of anothet cycle ? You are face to face with all that ever 
has been. The means are in your hands; the world is before 
you; the potencies of the most ancient knowledge with the direct 
influence of the search-light pouring upon it, is your birthright. 
Take and use it. Commence at once and persist, until you have 
reached that point where you can say to the physical, 'Stay, as I 
shall have need of thee.' 

"Egypt has left us no memory of a Homer, a Pericles, or a 
Xenophon. A single Hebrew writer, Moses, gives us a clearer 
insight, a more exact and truthful view of the actual state of that 
land than we can gain from any of its monuments, or written re- 
mains, or from Herodotus or any other Greek. The principal 
idea presented to us in the rapid sketches of the books of Moses, 
is that of power — absolute power. T am Pharaoh, and with 
me none shall lift up his hands or foot in all the land of Egypt.' 
All travelers on their journeys stand amazed at the prodigies 
which surround them on every side, but the main fact is the 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 187 

same. Power must have created all these things; for, in the 
Twentieth Century of the Christian Era, to reproduce the works 
which can be found even in the present at Luxor and Carnak, 
would be utterly and entirely impossible. 

So long as we are ununited and self-seeking, we are creat- 
ing both in the visible and in the invisible realms a feeling of 
opposition that grows stronger and stronger, as we increase our 
momentum of individuality. To this condition, by the very es- 
sence of its existence are necessarily drawn all other discordant 
forces. Singly, they hold, perhaps, but little energy; but, like 
grains of sand, in united action, they can weigh tons. It is 
strange how long it has taken man to learn this lesson of unity 
from the physical world; but, as he will not let go of his physi- 
cal, and look towards the spiritual side of himself, he must 
receive the chastisements that are the inevitable consequence. 
When he does come to the time and place, where from the spirit- 
ual side of himself, he can contemplate, he perceives a new view 
from his contemplation. This does not help self as a center of 
action or a starting point of force; but it holds out; it makes 
unity of harmonious action the main spring of all life. 

The "words of the wise" to man consequently ring and echo 
with injunctions to him of important import: "Obey the law — 
the word of the Supreme Will." "Do the will of the Father." 
These reiterated words of advice are forever reverberating 
through the arches of space. The more we declare that we will 
not obey, but will follow our own short-sighted inclinations in 
the direction of our desire and pleasure, the more we shall be 
sure to become tangled in savagery. Here we attempt to stay the 
immutable law, bringing upon ourselves the condign punishment 
or pain, by which only our animality can be trained. It is we 
and not God who is benefited by our conformity to law — the na- 
tural order of things. Thus we as animals have been and are 
gradually forced to perceive that the potency of united action is 
the only way by which we may hope to succeed. To be emi- 



188 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

nently successful, is the only result if we are truly on the basis 
of Universal Law, the only right method of action. 

Under the impress of the spirit, we become desirous of be- 
ing of some service to all our fellows, even if it is no more than 
to eat at the second table. When we have come to this point, it 
is no longer possible for us to hold enmity against our fellows, 
even in behalf of our most carefully cultivated feuds. What 
others may do, often causes annoyance, but never that unrelent- 
ing setness we know as hatred, which, like the hardening of a 
plaster cast, binds into an immovable and inflexible limitation, 
influencing even the condition of the Soul in both the hater 
and the one hated. 

The reader may thnk I am transgressing in giving the cause 
of certain results; I am not. In writing the history of a people 
or an Order, it is as important to give the reason for its downfall 
as it is to state what was taught, so warning other nations 
and Orders not to fall into like error; hence is it necessary to 
point out the way of deliverance. 

"It is a mistake to look at an Egyptian Temple in the light 
of a Church, or even of a Greek Temple. Here no public wor- 
ship was performed; the faithful did not congregate for public 
prayer; indeed, no one was admitted inside the Sanctuary except 
the Priest and the Initiates of the Order. In some, not even the 
King, unless he was an Initiate, was allowed at all times. The 
Temple was a royal proscenium, that is, a token of Piety from 
the King who erected it whereby to win the favor of the Gods. 

"The Egyptian Temples were always dedicated to three 
Gods — a Triad, and it is actually from this was copied the 
Christian Trinity. The first was the male principle; second, the 
female principle; third, the off-spring of the two. Creator, 
creating, and creation — in the Christian Trinity it is the Father 
(Creator), the Virgin Mary (Creatrix), and Jesus (the Son, or 
off-spring). Thus the three Deities are blended into one, ex- 
pressing neither beginning nor end. We thus prove that the 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 189 

Ancient Mysteries were taught and celebrated, first, in Atlantis; 
second, in Egypt; third, in Elephantis. In all of the Temples 
of these places the Fire Philosophy was taught as it has been 
throughout all the Secret Orders since the time of Ancient Atlan- 
tis. Of the Fire Philosophy of Atlantis, Egypt, and India, not 
much can be said in a history, as they are secret and not to be 
divulged to the profane. Only a small part of these instruc- 
tions may be quoted from the secret manuscript, proving that 
such was the philosophy of the ancient Masters. 

Each spark contains the Flame Consciousness belonging to 
every soul, which evolves finally into manifestation. In it, and 
under all, rests the eternal Essence, the Never-Dying Flame, 
which, once lighted (Soul awakened), bridges the Eternal Past 
with the Eternal Future. It is the Life Existent, the Soul of 
Fire. It is the Only True Way, the Infinite God. 

The Mighty Spirit of the Flame has no destructive essence 
within itself. But it holds all power, by Divine commission, to 
create the light that glorifies and uplifts everything that it shines 
upon. The central Fire (God) radiates to the circumference 
and there touches the periphery of all its existence. Again re- 
turning to the Center, it holds ensouled within its vibrations 
other souls to be illuminated and to become self-radiating from 
the same Great Fire. The fire of all the Gods is kindled from, 
and concentrated in, one Great God ! 

"Since the beginning of days, sacrifices have been laid upon 
the altar of Fire. In all ancient writings are we told of the corn- 
men fire; the sacred Fire and of Sacrificial Fire. What means 
the fire upon the altar ? What means the Mysterious Light ; 
the incense soaring in misty waves, as a Soul expands in exalta- 
tion;- the air heavy with its exhaled perfume: the solemn multi- 
tude of lamps, which with their richly wrought golden arbra 
gleams about Shrine and tabernacle? What, but that Fire, as- 
cending toward heaven in its pristine blueness and triangular 



190 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

shape is the profoundest symbol of the supreme life-giving 
power! 

''Watching the leaping flame, the Triangle plainly mani- 
fests itself. The base below, the apex pointing up, is from the 
beginning, put forth as symbolic of the Unseen, the Unknown 
God. There is nothing in all the world that holds so completely 
within itself all the attributes of the Supreme Intelligence. The 
point reaching upward is always the node of superior energy, the 
Creator of Life and sensation. Hence, the apex of the fiery 
triangle must be the Absolute; for the real potency of Fire ap- 
pears at the moment of contact. 

"The spirit of Fire we cognize as Life. Wherever God is, 
there Fire, as the Holy Ghost, will also be. Wherever Fire is, 
there is Life. Wherever Fire rests, there manifestation will be. 
If Fire is Life, then it must hold within itself the Divine Intelli- 
gence. Hence the flame. The essential essence of the flame is 
Life — God. If Fire is God and God is Love, the essential Fire 
must be Love; and thus we can only find the fire through Love 
and God through the fire. The manifested fire can sweep away 
all man's possession, and destroy his body; but the Essence drop- 
ping into the Secret Place of the Most High, the maelstrom or 
vehicle, which holds within itself the Unseen charm of all exist- 
ence, lights the Flame that makes man Immortal. 

"Where man worships, the lights burning upon the altar are 
symbolical of the Divine Energy, of generation and regeneration. 
These flaming lights encircle the most holy point of the ancient 
mosques. They glow in ambient beauty about the Shrine of 
saints and the churches of the Eternal Cities. They burn con- 
stantly in Mystic attestation before the tombs of the Redeemers. 
Always and everywhere, they are and always have been a silent 
witness and sign to the Initiate, of the origin and significance of 
the Sun Worshippers. 

Man, seeing fire struck out from the cold, unyielding flint, 
comes to believe that the coldest, hardest stone must have a 



^^^ PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 191 

heart of fire. All Nature is built upon the Divine Fire. The 
flagstone of matter shuts it down, waiting for the great Central 
Sun to drop a ray of fiery essence into the bosom of Mother 
Earth. It thereby creates sufficient impulse to cause it to stream 
forth, unwind its starry limbs, and step into manifestation. This 
fire descending upon the altar of Mother Earth holds concealed 
as its ultimate, the Secret of Life. 

"The lily bulb contains the same forceful fire. It possesses 
the Creative Energy to rise from the lowest to the highest. The 
Lotus is the whole lesson and law of transmutation. By its own 
function and growth the law of the Creative Energy acts. The 
gross becomes the supernal. The supreme atom of the lily and 
all else that is, has kindled, at the base of this Altar of the Wa- 
ters, the Eternal Essence of Life, which is fire. When it reaches 
the surface, in manifesting beauty, there burns within its bosom 
— White Chalice of the Gods, the Heart of Fire — the tongue of 
flame of the Holy Spirit. Having descended into matter for 
the purpose of taking hold of the material, it converts the opaque 
into the brilliant purity of the Highest Transmutation. The 
Holy Spirit does not really descend, but only places Itself in 
touch with that which is lower. What a beautiful illustration 
of the True Initiation we have here. The secret is so plainly 
unveiled that all who have eyes may see. 

"The fire springing out of the Etheric and Auric vibrations 
is the highest Esoteric Fire, born of the spontaneous action of 
the positive and the negative forces. We gaze with awe upon 
its multiform shapes ; its trails of sparks ; its flame wreaths ; scin- 
tilating, wavering arches and vortices, starting up out of the 
matrix of apparent solidity, reducing its source to its own ulti- 
mate invisibility. 

Flame is significant of rebirth and Resurrection; of the 
Spiritual born out of the material. It is symbol and substance 
at once, of the Immortality of the Ego. Hence the Angel of Fire 
hath dominion. Above all, is the glowing supernatural flower of 



192 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

Love, concealed in the inanimate womb of matter. The great 
love of the physical world, whose warmth and ardor destroys the 
material and perceptible form, is symbolized by the enwrapping 
liame. Freed from its prison of limitation and thus formless, it 
gives rebirth to the spirit, in both the Seen and the Unseen 
worlds. 

"The Fire God, the Beautiful, the Resplendent! Conceived 
in ike Land of Silence! Born out of the womb of Mystery! 
Thou art the Shadow of the Shadowless! Thou art the Cause- 
less Cause! The existent God! We worship not the Fire, but 
that which is represented by the Fire — Love. 

"There is no power but Love strong enough to hold through 
all the complex problems of earth life. It is Love that meets us 
as we cross the threshold of the narrow gate. It is Love that 
looks into our eyes, as we close them in the last earthly sleep. It 
is Love that greets us, when the Gates of Paradise swing inward 
for our reception, after our long or brief pilgrimage in the mortal 
realm. Love is that which abides, and is as eternal as God. This 
is the Love that dies not. They who love truly, can easily and 
cheerfully put aside self for the Beloved. Whoever returns to 
earth searching for whom he seeks, can only find and rejoin 
them, by entering into this realm of Omnipotence. Love is a 
guide which will never fail. Love will restore the loved ones to 
each other should they ever be lost. 

"Love, the Law, in its fulfilling, must hold for itself both 
an inflowing and an outflowing current. The ebb and flow of 
the life blood is symbolical of the give and take of love in activ- 
ity. He who loves, lives in the highest realm of the all-life. He 
who loves counts all things but loss, if he may but win and hold 
the true love and real affection of the one loved. The true lover, 
takes labor and toil by the hand, as benefactors and boon com- 
panions, leads them into verdant pastures giving fresh hope to 
the tired and overtaxed heart. Love tunes the Harp of Life to 
the perfect vibration of the At-One-Ment. 



The Essenes and Therapeutae 

The Order of the Essenes, in the time of Jesus, constituted 
the final remnant of those Brotherhoods of prophets believed to 
have been organized by Samuel. The despotism of the rulers of 
Palestine, the jealousy of an ambitious and servile priesthood, 
had forced them to take refuge in silence and solitude. They no 
longer struggled as did their predecessors, but contented them- 
selves with preserving their traditions. They had two principal 
centers, one in Egypt, on the banks of Lake Maoris, the other in 
Palestine, at Engaddi, near the Dead Sea. The name of "Es- 
senes" which they had adopted came from the Syrian word 
assay a, a physician — in Greek, therapeutis; for their only 
acknowledged ministry with regard to the public was that of 
healing diseases both physical and moral. They studied with 
great diligence certain medical writings dealing with the occult 
virtue of plants and minerals. 

It is chiefly due to the Syrian word, "Assay a," that the mis- 
take is made in regard to the Essenes and the Therapeutae. The 
Therapeutae was a branch of the Essenes, of lesser degrees and 
with different duties. The fact that the name of the Order was 
derived from the Syrian, induced Dr. P. B. Randolph to journey 
to Syria while in the Orient, to investigate whether there might be 
a possibility of the Essenians being a branch of some still older 
Order, and proved of vast importance to him and his work, find- 
ing as he did, the source of the mystical knowledge now known 
as the Ansaireth. 

The branch known as the Therapeutae had their home 



194 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

chiefly on Lake Mareotis, near Alexandria; this branch had 
colonies in other places. Like the parent body — the Essenes — 
they lived chiefly in monasteries, and were very moderate with 
regard to dress and food; they prayed at sunrise, having their 
faces turned to the East ; studied the Secret Doctrine and Greater 
Mysteries of Antiquity. They differed from the Essenes in thai 
they lived a contemplative life, while the Essenes followed many 
useful occupations, such as agriculture, arts, science, etc. The 
Essenes lived together in common; the Therapeutae often lived 
separately and alone. The Therapeutae, being of the Outer De- 
gree, knew none of the divisions that marked the several de- 
grees of Initiation of the Inner Circle — the Essenes. Both 
Branches resembled the Pythagoreans; and the teachings were 
almost identical. Neither used animal food; and both the Inner 
and outer admitted women to their assemblies and even to cer- 
tain of the degrees. 

The Essenes, living a more active life, bore a very import 
ant, though secret, part in the development of Judaism. John 
the Baptist belonged to their ranks before Jesus was admitted. 

Seme of the members possessed the gift of prophecy, as, 
Menahim, who had prophesied to Herod that he should reign. 
They served God with great piety, not by offering victims but by 
sanctifying the Soul; avoiding towns, they devoted themselves 
to the arts of peace; not a single slave was among them; they 
were all free and worked for one another. The rules of the 
Order were very strict as was necessary in such times. To be ad- 
mitted to enter, a year's novitiate was necessary. If one had 
given sufficient proofs of temperance, he was then permitted to 
receive the ablutions, though without entering into relations with 
the Masters of the Order. Tests, extending over another two 
years, were necessary before being received into the Brotherhood. 
They took the Sacred vow to observe the rules of the Order and 
to betray none of its secrets. Then only did they participate in 
the common repasts, which were celebrated with great solemnity 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 195 

and constituted the Inner worship of the Essenes. The garments 
they had worn during these repasts they looked upon as sacred 
and to be removed before resuming work. These fraternal Love 
feasts, after which was patterned the Supper instituted by Jesus 
later on, began and ended with prayer. The interpretation of 
the sacred books of Moses and the prophets was here given. But 
the explanations of the texts allowed of three significations. All 
this wonderfully resembled the organization of the Pythagoreans, 
having been almost the same amongst all the ancient prophets, 
for it is identical in spirit, if not entirely in form, wherever true 
Initiation has ever existed. The Essenes professed the essential 
dogma of the Orphic and Pythagorean doctrine: that of the pre- 
existence of the Soul, the consequence and reason of its Immor- 
tality. The soul descending from the most subtle Ether, and 
attracted into a body by certain desires, remains there as in a 
prison; freed from the bonds of the body, as from a long servi- 
tude, when it has worked out its own salvation, joyfully takes 
its flight. 

Among the Essenes, the brothers, properly so-called, lived 
under a community of property, and in a condition of celibacy, 
net because they believed that to be the best state for man, but be- 
cause experience had taught them man could seldom live har- 
moniously when married and continue his care and instruction 
of women. There were married Essenes, but these formed a 
separate class, did not teach, and were under subjection of the 
others. Silent, gentle and grave, they were to be met with here 
and there, cultivating the Arts of Peace. Carpenters, weavers, 
vine-planters, or gardeners, never gunsmiths or merchants. 
Scattered in small groups about the whole of Palestine, and in 
Egypt, even as far as Mount Horeb, they offered one another the 
most complete hospitality. Thus we see Jesus and his disciples 
journeying from town to town, and from province to province, 
and always certain of finding shelter and lodging. They obeyed 
the laws of true Initiation: "Do unto ethers as you would that 
they should do unto you." 



196 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

The Essenes were of an exemplary morality; they forced 
themselves to suppress passion and anger, transmuting it into 
love, always benevolent, peaceable, and trustworthy. Their word 
was more powerful than an oath, which, in ordinary life, they 
looked upon as superfluous, and almost perjury. They endured 
the most cruel tortures with admirable steadfastness of soul and 
smiling countenance, rather than violate the slightest religious 
precept. Indifferent to the outward pomp of worship at Jeru- 
salem, repelled by the harshness of the Sadducees, and the 
Prayers of the Pharisees, as well as by the pedantry of the syna- 
gogue, as these were merely forms without soul. 

From the Essenes, Jesus received what they alone could give 
him: The esoteric traditions of the prophets, and, by its means, 
his own historical and religious tendency or trend. He was 
shown how wide was the gulf that separated the official Jewish 
doctrine from the Ancient Wisdom of the Initiates — the veritable 
mother of religion — though ever persecuted by Satan — by the 
spirit of evil, of egotism, hatred, pride of form, and denial, allied 
with absolute political power and priestly imposture. He learned 
that Genesis, under the seal of its symbolism, concealed a 
theogony and a cosmogony as far removed from the literal sig- 
nification as is the profoundest truth of science from a child's 
fable. He contemplated the days of AElohim, or the eternal 
creation by emanation of the elements and the formation of the 
worlds, the origin of the floating souls, and their return to God 
by progressive existences or generations of Adam. He was taught 
the grandeur of the thoughts of Moses, whose intention had been 
to prepare the religious unity of the nations by establishing the 
worship of the one God, and incarnating this idea into a people. 

He was instructed in the doctrine of the divine Word, al- 
ready taught by Krishna in India, by the priests of Osiris, by 
Orpheus and Pythagoras in Greece, and known to the prophets 
under the name of the Mysteries of the Son of Man and of the 
Son of God. According to this doctrine, the highest manifesta- 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 197 

tion of God is man, who, in constitution, form, organs, and in- 
telligence, is the image of the Universal Being, whose faculties 
he possesses and whose powers he may develop if he will. 

In the earthly evolution of humanity, however, God is scat- 
tered, split up, and mutilated, so to speak, in the multiplicity of 
men and of human imperfections. In it He struggles, suffers, 
and tries to find Himself, He is the Son in Man, the Perfect 
Man, the Man-Type, the profoundest thought of God, remaining 
hidden in the infinite abyss of His desires and power. At cer- 
tain epochs, when humanity is to be saved from some terrible gulf. 
and set on a higher plane, a chosen one identifies himself with 
Divinity, attracts It to himself by strength, wisdom, and love, 
and manifests it anew to man. Then, Divinity, by the virtue 
and breath of the Spirit, is completely present in him: the Son 
of Man then becomes the Son of God, and His Living Word. In 
other ages and among other nations, there have already ap- 
peared Sons of God; but, since Moses, none had arisen in Israel. 
All the prophets were expecting this Messiah. The Seers even 
said that this time he will call himself the Son of Woman, of 
the Heavenly Isis, of the divine light which is the Bride of God 
(Soul with God) ; for the light of Love would shine in him. 

All these secrets which the patriarch of the Essenes unfold- 
ed to the young Galilean on the solitary banks of the Dead 
Sea, in lonely Engaddi, seemed to him wonderful, but yet known. 
It was with no ordinary emotion that he heard the chief of the 
Order comment on the words still tc be read in the books of 
Enoch: "From the beginning the Son of Man was in the 
Mystery. The Father kept him near his mighty presence, and 
manifested him to his elect. But the kings shall be afraid and 
shall prostrate themselves to the ground with terror, when they 
shall see the son of woman seated on the throne of his glory. 
Then the elect shall summon all the forces of heaven, all tht 
saints from on high and the power of God; and the Cherubim, 
the Seraphim, the Ophanim, all the angels of Might, all the 



198 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

angels of the Lord, ie., of the Elect, and of the other Might, 
serving on earth and obey the waters, shall raise their voices." 

A history of the Philosophers would not be complete with- 
out dwelling on the Essenian Order, because the Ancient Myster- 
ies and the Secret Doctrine took another form after the Initia- 
tion of Jesus, who became the Christ. Their teachings are there- 
fore of vital importance and show that the Essenian Fraternity 
fully understood the instructions and training of all other Orders 
and religious beliefs, moreover, that the Essenian Order was 
merely a continuation of the older Schools under a new name. 

The fundamental doctrine regarding Initiation taught by 
the Essenes differed but slightly from that of the Ancient Mys- 
teries. This doctrine was that: "The union of God with the 
soul which is to become Illuminated, is the principle of all 
Mystic life. But this union, the fulness and final consumma- 
tion of which cannot be experienced till death has been passed 
through and eternity has been achieved, can be accomplished on 
this earth in a more or less perfect manner; and the literature of 
the Ancient Secret Doctrine has no other end in view than to 
unvail to us, by a full and profound analysis of the different 
stages of evolution in the Soul of man, the diverse successive 
degrees of this divine union. Seven distinct stages of the soul's 
ascent towards God have always been recognized by the Mys- 
tics; and they constitute what has been emblematically called the 
Castle of the interior man. They represent the seven absolute 
processes of Soul Development and of Illumination, or trans- 
figuration. The first link in this Arcane sequence is called the 
state of prayer, which, from the pneumatic standpoint, is the 
concentration of the intellectual energies upon God as the object 
of thought, which is commonly assisted by the ceremonial appeal 
made by religion to the senses. It has, however, a higher aspect, 
comprised in the second evolutionary process, called the state of 
mental prayer. Here the illusionary phenomena of the visible 
world are regarded as informed wth the Inner pneumatic signi- 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 199 

ficance, to divine which is the chief end of Mysticism. In order 
to make progress therein, and so attain the third stage, it ii^ 
necessary that the Aspirant, shaping all practical life in con- 
formity with this theory, should perform no outward act except 
with a view to its inward meaning, all things which are of time 
and earth, and man being simply figures and symbols of earth 
and heaven and God. The postulant as he advances will per- 
ceive that the inmost thoughts of his own conscious being are 
only a limited and individual speculation of the speech or word 
of God, concealed even in its apparent revelation, and itself a 
veil of the Divine truth which must be removed for the con- 
templation of the truth absolute, which is behind it. When he 
has reached this point the Mystic will have entered the third 
stage of his growth. The next step is the most difficult of all; 
it is termed by Mystics the obscure night; and here it is neces- 
sary that the aspirant become stark naked, that means — he 
should empty himself completely, should be stripped of all his 
j acuities, renouncing all his own predilections, his own thoughts, 
his own will, in a word, his whole self, and take upon himself 
that of the divine will. Aridity, weariness, temptation, desola- 
tion, darkness, are characteristic of this epoch, and these have 
been experienced by all who have ever made any progress in the 
Mysteries oi Mystical Love. The fourth condition i- s denomi- 
nated the prayer of quietism. Complete immolation of self and 
unreserved surrender into the hands of God, have repose as their 
first result. Such quietism, however, is not to be confounded 
with insensibility; or negativeness, for it leads to the soul's real 
activity, jo that which has Gcd for its impulse. The fifth de- 
gree in the successive spiritualization of the human soul is 
called the state of union, in which the will of man and the will 
of God become substantially identical. This is the Mystical 
irrigation which fertilizes the garden of the Soul. During this 
portion of his development, the Neophyte, imbued with a pover- 
eign disdain of all things material, as well as of himself, accom- 



200 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

plishes in peace, serenity, and joy of spirit, the will of God, 
supernaturally speaking, within himself. On the extreme fur- 
ther limit of this condition, the Mystic enters the sixth state, 
which is that of estatic prayer; the soul's transport above 
and outside itself. It constitutes a union with Divinity by 
the instrument of positive love which is a state of sanctificarion, 
beatitude, and ineffable torrents of delight flowing over the 
whole being. It is beyond description, it transcends illustra- 
tion, and its felicity is not to be conceived. Love which is a 
potency of the soul, or of the anima which vivifies our bodies, 
has passed into the spirit of the soul, into its superior, divine, 
and universal form; and this process completed comprises the 
seventh and final state of pneumatic development, which is that 
of ravishment. Renouncing all that is corporeal about it, the 
soul becomes a pure spirit, capable of being united, in a wholly 
celestial manner to the Uncreated Spirit, whom it beholds, loves, 
serves, adores above and beyond all created forms; this is 
the Mystic marriage*, the perfect union, and entrance of God 
and Heaven into the interior of man. 



*See "The Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz" in "The 
Rosicrucians ; Their Teachings." 



The Initiatory Patli 



The first step in the Occult path is to thoroughly search 
the self thereby to find the reason why such knowledge is de- 
sired. 

In many instances the desire is unquestionably based on a 
selfish motive; when this is true, the path become a dangerous 
one to both body and reason and it were much better for such 
an one to forego the quest so avoiding the penalty that must 
be paid sooner or later when man attempts to use the divine 
forces for ulterior purposes. 

The Neophyte once having entered the Path there is actu- 
ally no turning back. Experience teaches us that many who 
enter the Way possibly one-half attempt to turn back, always 
ending in failure — the law set into motion when the entrance is 
made and the vow taken cannot be recalled, it proceeds ever 
forward, and though the student seems to give up the search for 
a time, the internal urge, continually accentuated by the working 
of the law, will sooner or later force such to reenter the path and 
then it becomes doubly difficult for those who' had entered for 
selfish purposes. 

The Occult Law may be thus set forth: "The Neophyte 
once admitted, there can be no possibility of successfully retreat- 
ing; one must succeed or lose freedom, and in some cases, 
where the vow is broken, life itself; because the powers of evil 
which are aroused always when man undertakes to follow the 
Spiritual life rather than the material, must be conquered, or 
they will conquer the seeker." 

The sincere seeker, he who in his heart desires the better 
and diviner life, cannot be intimidated; his desire is for wisdom 



202 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

and knowledge, that knowledge which comes through experience, 
aye, even through sorrow and suffering. Such know no fear, or 
if it is momentarily aroused within them, quickly master it and 
proceed with the Work. 

Within man are all the passions of the animal world; every 
animal known to man is represented in his being as so clearly 
depicted in "Pilgrim's Progress'' by John Bunyan, and though 
these passions may be dormant in man and lead him to the de- 
lusion he is not bound to them, no sooner does he enter the Path 
than they become aroused and urge him to their satisfaction. 

Therefore it is entirely possible one may have lived an 
exemplary life so far as the sex nature is concerned and 
been entirely free from temptation, no sooner does he enter the 
Path when this nature within himself is aroused and tempta- 
tion after temptation from without comes his way. This is not 
because any great change has as yet taken place within him- 
self, but because he has set forth to master the Dragon, all 
Dragons, and these feel their days will be numbered unless they 
become the master. He has set a law into motion with which 
he must keep pace or become the slave, for this reason it has 
often been stated that Fate is a peculiar feminine character; she 
will tempt man, betray man, and ruin him if she can, but once 
she learns she can do neither of these things she becomes his 
willing slave. 

It is likewise with the passions. Man seemingly is a unit, 
a single being; as a fact, he is fearfully composite; within him 
dwell all things in existence; he is actually the microcosm of the 
macrocosm, the small duplicate of the large world. While he 
lives the material life these forces may be dormant, his power is 
merely nominal, but when he arouses himself, then he arouses all 
these forces likewise, and as he masters one after the other of 
these energies, forces or beings, he is possessed of a new power 
until at last, when he has mastered all the denizens within him- 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 203 

self he possesses all potency, thus it is written; "Man shall be- 
come master of the beasts of the field, etc." 

Once the mastery of creatures within himself is well under 
way, another equally important step is undertaken; that of the 
search within the self for what may be found there. Within 
man are all powers, all forces, all wisdom, all that is. The 
Ancients, knowing this to be true, wrote above their Temples of 
Initiation: "Man, Know Thyself," fully aware of the fact that 
once man accomplished this search successfully, he would have 
a knowledge of all. 

This search opens up unknown worlds and darkening 
shadows, not least of these being the gradual comprehension that 
he who has so far awakened as to comprehend that he must be 
different from others who have not yet awakened, and then is 
born within the feeling of a great and overpowering loneliness 
which seems to fill the entire being with sorrow and misery. 

The comprehension that the seeker must ultimately pass 
through this chamber of darkness as he had to pass through the 
chamber of animal creation and passion, should not by any 
means prevent one from entering the path, for let it be known 
that before immortality can be reached by a living human being 
possessing a soul, this path must be travelled, therefore, it is the 
logical conclusion, that sooner or later, ALL souls must pass 
through the shadows. 

Apparently there is nothing more terrible than isolation 
and solitude to those who know of no other life than that of ex- 
ternal sensation and who cannot, as yet, create their own thought 
world; especially if there is no change in their surroundings, to 
attract their attention and to stimulate them to think. Thinking 
is an Art, and few can think what they wish, or hold on to a 
thought ; once they can do this they* create their own world and 
can be happy in isolation. Men only think what they must ; they 
feed on the ideas that enter their minds without their volition or 
at the behests of the physical appetites. Welcome and unwelcome 



204 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

thoughts enter; they neither come at their bidding nor go away 
when they are not wanted; they are like disorderly guests who 
do not obey the rules which the landlord prescribes. This is 
diffusion; it is the one reason why man is weak, sickly, and a 
failure. The Path leads to concentration, to mastery of thought 
and the power to create a constructive thought and hold to it 
until personification takes place. 

Naturally, in the beginning there is confusion which seems 
to be destructive. The mind awakening from its centuries of 
sleep and confusion attempts, like a mother with a large family 
of untrained children, to bring order out of chaos and finds 
the din so much the greater, but gradually, very gradually, a 
separation begins to take place, each one is placed in its own 
proper niche or sphere and when all are well arranged the mind 
which has been enabled to establish system, will begin to con- 
struct new thoughts, new ideas, and new mental pictures and 
life commences to take on an entirely new aspect, this is the 
awakening — the baptism of St. John, by water, or Mind. 

Now that the mind has become awakened, aroused to a new 
state of existence, the power to picture a new world with new 
creatures, all of whom apparently work in harmony one with 
the other, man begins to look within his own soul, a new sphere 
opens before him ; his image forming faculty grows stronger, and 
pictures begin to present themselves before the inner eye and 
become objective and real as the objects of the external world ; he 
begins to realize he can bring them into manifestation once he 
has fully developed all his powers and faculties. 

Visions of things formerly seen, but of which memory had 
been lost, appear again, vivid and real with all their living de- 
tails; desires entering the heart immediately take objective form 
in the mind, representing in seemingly living forms the objects 
of which he thinks; and thus may be seen many beautiful things 
in the vision, and desirable things learned, for this is the Path 
to Knowledge. Nor must we forget those sights which are un- 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 205 

desirable, aye, horrible, for only he who has thoroughly cleansed 
the whole temple can be entirely free from disturbing vision: 
Therefore, let your first duty be the cleansing of your temple, in 
like manner as did Jesus clean the Temple of robbers, thiefs 
and money-changers. Even Jesus had his work of cleansing the 
temple from tilth, degrading conditions and undesirable deni- 
zens. 

What is the plastic power of the imagination, and what 
do men mean by calling subjective images "merely works of the 
imagination?" Can we imagine anything that does not exist? 
Are the creations of our thoughts less real to us than the things 
which the imagination of others created for us, since ail things 
must exist first in the imagination? Is not the universe itself a 
product of the imagination of God; and are we not gods in our 
inner world, able to create forms from that which apparently 
does not yet exist? Did not the great teacher say, through St. 
John, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to 
become the sons of God." 

Gradually, as man finds — himself, he sees within his inner 
world another world, with space as infinite as that of the outer 
world, with mountains and plains, with oceans and rivers, with 
creatures who now look up to him as their god — He has mas- 
tered them. These draw life from his Will, and nourishment 
frrm his Thoughts, in the same sense as man now receives power 
and ideas from the God of the universe, appearing to him in his 
dreams while asleep, and in visions while awake. 

'1 he next step in the path is to be able to close the senses 
and the desires of the material world and being, thereby giving 
the spiritual desires an opportunity to be heard. This is not the 
work of a day or a week, but a result of training and growth. 

No vision is possible, nor will the spiritual sight be opened 
to the initiate unless he first has learned, through long training 
and concentration, to silence the senses and passions of rhe mor- 
tal being. Having opened the vision and spiritual sight, the Ini- 



206 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

tiate is well on the path to power, and has the means to gain 
knowledge. 

Knowledge cannot be gained by any outside teaching. We 
may take the teacher's word for all he may tell us; but we can- 
not know, or have knowledge, unless the inner perceptions, the 
very ioul, feels and senses that it is so. From the inner being — 
the Soul, and through personal experience alone, can come 
knowledge and understanding. To feel is to know. To suffer 
is to know. To create is to know. To see may be a delusion. 

The materialist who has not awakened the Soul within, has 
neither right nor power to know inner truths. It is only he who, 
through training and right living—living the life that is taught, 
—has been enabled to awaken the Still Small Voice, the inner 
bemg, who can understand Spiritual truths. 

The student must firmly close all the doors — external senses 
= — and exclude all the profane, the sophists and the scoffers — 
prejudices. Open up the spiritual perceptions. Beware of pas- 
sions and evil desires; avoid erroneous opinions and intellectual 
prejudices. Keep the mind continually directed toward the 
divine source of all existence, strive after a continual realiza- 
tion of the presence of the Supreme; and, in the desire to walk 
upon the Path of Light to Immortality, do not forget even for a 
moment that you are living in the consciousness of Him whose 
power has created the world. He is all things and all things are 
in Him. He is self -existent, pure knowledge, pure wisdom, 
and, although He is seen by no man, except in the Light or Fire 
within your own Center, there is nothing within the Universe 
that can hide itself from His sight. 

The next step is to come into an understanding of the Laws 
of Nature, and a comprehension that nothing within Her is 
dead, but that all forms are manifestations of the one Uni- 
versal power of Life. Learn to know the cause of the physical 
phenomena occurring in the world of phenomena, the nature of 



P HILOSOEHV OF FIRE 207 

Light and Sound, of Heat and Electricity, and of all other 
things, 

The student must master the mystery of the spiritual nature 
of man and the laws of Reincarnation. How the human nomad 
again and again descends to build up a mortal physical form 
and to evolve a new personality at each of its visits to earth; 
that the human form, which we know as men, women, and chil- 
dren, are not the real man, but merely ever-changing aggrega- 
tions of matter, endowed with an ever-changing consciousness, 
unsubstantial although living illusions, doomed to perish when 
the Soul retires to its home, to rest f*om its labors; while the 
substantial, indivisible, and incorruptible Spirit is the real man, 
continually returning to the earth plane until the mind iff 
awakened, the Soul Illuminated and the individuality created 
and perfected. 

The student is taught the signification of the sacfed sylla- 
ble AVM and of certain symbolical signs, including the double- 
interlaced Triangle, the Snake, and the Tau, and his office is 
to guard the portals of man, so that nothing impure may enter; 
for not one is ever admitted into the Sanctuary of the Inner 
Temple, unless he first proves himself a faithful guardian of 
that door by which evil thoughts and desires continuously at- 
tempt to enter the mind, and if the guardian of the Door is not 
faithful to his trust, allowing these undesirable visitors to enter, 
then no talisman will prove of avail. 

These enemies of the Soul of man can easily be kept from 
the Sacred Portals if the aspirations are for something higher 
than the gratification of sensual appetites, and the beauty of. any 
corporeal form, however pleasing it may be to the eyes, cannot 
enslave him who has learned to know the beauty of the spirit, 
and who quickly retires to the Throne of the Soul when tempta- 
tion comes. 

He who has not been tempted cannot know the power of 
temptation, nor yet can one learn the mysteries of the Spirit, who 



208 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

has not descended into the lowest caves where the supreme 
temptress dwells. Let no student take pride in his strength un- 
til he has been thoroughly tested, and let him not condemn one 
who may have fallen, for neither may he know the strength 
possessed by the tempter, nor yet the weakness of the one tempt- 
ed. Let him search himself for his own weakness, and beware 
there is no secret entrance left open within himself, by which a 
favorite passion may enter, and should the temptress gain en- 
trance during his slumber, he must call to his aid the superior 
power of his awakened Will, and repel her. Then will the door 
of the soul open, Reason will enter and guide him by the light 
of D!v ; ne Wisdom. Lest he forget, it must be impressed upon 
It's mind that the temptress does not come announcing her ar- 
rival with a blare of trumpets, but in the silence of the night 
when all seems well. 

No man can actually know his own weakness, not yet find 
his strength who does not descend to the innermost depths of his 
soul, where he may find it infested with poisonous serpents and 
venomous reptiles, the symbols of the brood of passions and spir- 
its of evil desires; but, if he calls to his aid the Divine Wisdom, 
these evil creatures will gradually leave him and give place to 
pure and holy desires and aspirations for the highest, and peace 
be established. 

The student, during his initiation, must come into a clear 
comprehension of the great Law of Karma; that is to say, the 
Absolute Law of Cause and Effect, not merely upon the physical 
plane, where the law of Mechanics exists, but upon all planes, 
and in the higher realm, where Divine Justice rules supreme, 
where Good finds its own reward, and Evil its own just punish- 
ment. 

Whatever man does or thinks, will produce a correspond- 
ing reaction both upon himself and all things with which he is 
allied or connected. He who benefits others is actually 
benefitting himself, while he who injures others, if ever so 



PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 209 

slightly, is decreeing his own punishment. The acts of 
men are the external symbols of their interior lives, and every 
thought and act has a tendency to repeat itself. Thoughts be- 
come beings who struggle for life according to the strength 
given them by the thinker, and who seek to become embodied 
in acts; and when once embodied, they cling to their life in the 
same way man clings to his. 

The principal work of the student, besides self-purification, 
is the cultivation of the power of Intuition, by which man may 
know the truth and attain wisdom, independent of external in- 
formation and without the necessity of adopting the opinions 
of others, by means of coming into direct communication with 
the Hierarchies of learning. 

Finally, the neophyte must come to a clear comprehension 
that there is no relative Good without relative Evil. There is no 
man so pure as not to have some animal elements within his 
constitution; were there such a man, he would not be able to 
develop higher; for the reason that it is from the animal ele- 
ment the soul draws its nourishment and strength to rise higher 
and become more spiritual, just as does the purest lily draw its 
life from the slimy bed of the lake. Not to destroy, 
but to make use of the elements of evil for the purpose of ac- 
complishing good, is the object of Alchemy or the higher Edu- 
cation. When the higher life begins to awaken within the soul 
and the light of the Spirit penetrates into the regions of the 
elements, the animal egoes begin to revolt and to rise to the 
surface. They may even appear in objective form and thus the 
Terror of the Threshold may show his face. He may be nothing 
more than a product of man's own imagination tinged, or col- 
ored, by the evil w 7 ithin which has not yet been transmuted, nev- 
ertheless, to the eyes that see him he seems as real as any other 
living thing among the so-called realities of this world; and, if 
the candidate for Initiation is subject to fear, the Dweller may 
appear again and again, and take possession of the mind. 



210 PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 

There is a region in the soul of man in which such Dwell- 
ers reside. In very degraded persons this region swarms with 
living, semi-developed, or full-grown animal principles and sub- 
jective monstrosities of all kinds, and, under certain conditions, 
especially if the physical organism is weakened by disease, they 
may, so to say, step out of their centre, and assume an objec- 
tive form, clothing themselves in the grosser elements of matter 
and becoming visible even to the external senses. The Material- 
ization of modern Spiritualism furnishes an example of this. 
Obsession is another, and is often curable only when a 
master mind, or one with experience, controls, for a time, the 
mind of the obsessed and frees the victim of the control, by 
means of the power of will. Frequently students who have taken 
the vow and have proven unfaithful to it in some manner, either 
by betraying the secrets of that which is written for them alone, 
become victims of the Terror and can be freed only be redeeming 
their vow and by the help of the Master who had been appointed 
as the instructor. 

"When ye stand, take heed lest ye fall." Jesus, 



OUR SOCIAL LIFE 

Listen! All social problems lie in the conquest over the 
natural and personal man. It is the continual protest against 
the Natural Law. Rising into the world of Love and self-con- 
sciousness, we rise into a world of freedom and equality. A 
great teacher has said : "Man is a composite being. In him is 
the angelic and the animal. The spiritual training of life means 
no more than the subjugation of the animal, and the setting free 
of the Angelic." 

There is a great and wonderful epitome founded upon hav- 
ing, and holding in our possession, the key that unlocks all 
doors, and the knowledge of how to use and handle it. That 
key is Love. He who loves lives; he who loves not, is dead; he 
who loves himself alone, lives in hell, because, centering all the 
essence of existence upon his own body, he burns and shrivels 
under the intolerant intensity of its force. He who loves others, 
lives in heaven, because the desire to love and bring good, reacts 
and compels harmony. 



PUBLISHERS NOTE 

Practically all of the books and manuscripts mentioned in 
the notes throughout this book may be obtained from the pub- 
lishers. Catalog will be forwarded on request, and questions 
freely answered. 



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